CARBOHYDRATE-DEFICIENT TRANSFERRIN - A VALID MARKER OF ALCOHOLISM IN POPULATION STUDIES - RESULTS FROM THE COPENHAGEN CITY HEART-STUDY

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) was analyzed by a modified ra dioimmunoassay test in a random population sample of 400 individuals, and results were compared with reported alcohol intake derived from a structured questionnaire. Among the 180 men, the test was found to be acceptable with respect to detecting harmful alcohol intake (>35 bever ages/week) and alcohol intake above the recommended level (21 beverage s/week), although the positive predictive values were low. Among the 2 20 women, the test was invalid with low predictive values. CDT was com pared with other known markers of high alcohol intake, and it was obse rved that CDT had higher sensitivity and specificity than AST and shor t Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (sMAST) in men, whereas the posit ive and negative predictive values were low in all tests. A combinatio n of CDT and AST proved to be a better marker of both harmful alcohol intake and alcohol intake above the recommended level than the other m arkers. Neither CDT, AST, CDT/AST, nor sMAST proved to be useful as ma rkers of alcohol intake in women, There were no differences between th e values for pre- and postmenopausal women. These results from a popul ation survey indicate that CDT is a marker of alcohol intake among men , although not ideal, but CDT cannot he used in the screening of harmf ul alcohol intake in women.