We investigated the ability of various blood markers to detect an alco
holic cause of acute pancreatitis. Serum carbohydrate-deficient transf
errin (CDT) was significantly correlated with reported 2 month and 7 d
ay ethanol consumptions and was significantly higher in 42 patients wi
th alcoholic acute pancreatitis and in 24 patients with possibly alcoh
olic acute pancreatitis than in 20 patients with non-alcoholic disease
. At a cutoff over 17 U/L, the specificity of CDT was 100% and the sen
sitivity was 75% to detect an alcoholic cause of acute pancreatitis. T
he lipase/amylase ratio index, erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume, an
d gamma glutamyl transferase could not distinguish alcoholic from non-
alcoholic acute pancreatitis.