Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is one of the few non-alcohol induced liver
pathologies which causes false positive results in the evaluation of carbo
hydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) for the diagnosis of alcohol misuse. Th
is phenomenon has only been observed when using the CDTect assay (Pharmacia
& Upjohn, Uppsala, Sweden). In this study, we evaluated CDT in female PBC
patients (n = 14) by a new CDT procedure, the %CDT turbidimetric immunoassa
y (TIA, Axis Biochemicals, Oslo, Norway) using the isoelectric focusing/imm
unoblotting/laser densitometry (IEF/IB/LD, Specialty Laboratories, Santa Mo
nica, CA, USA) procedure as the gold standard. One of the PBC patients test
ed CDT+ by IEF/IB/LD (cut-off >9 densitometry units, DU) and %CDT TIA (cut
off >6%); one patient tested at the cut-off point of the IEF/IB/LD and anot
her one tested at the cut-off point of the %CDT TIA. Thus, unlike CDTect, t
he %CDT TIA is a procedure that produces few false positives in PBC.