SEMIAUTOMATED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION OF CARBOHYDRATE-DEFICIENT TRANSFERRIN IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ALCOHOL-ABUSE

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) may now be the most valuable biological marker for diagnosis of alcohol abuse. We compared the diag nostic performance of two new CDT tests, Axis %CDT turbidimetric immun oassay (TIA) and Axis %CDT HPLC, against Specialty Laboratories' isoel ectric focusing/immunoblotting/laser densitometry (IEF/IB/LD). Both Ax is tests include one-half the concentration of trisialotransferrin iso forms in their CDT quantitation schemes. Considering an alcohol abuse prevalence of 7%, Axis %CDT TIA shows a sensitivity of 87% at 98% spec ificity and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 0.75; %CDT HPLC shows a sensitivity of 87% at 100% specificity for a PPV of 1, and the IEF/ IB/LD shows 81% sensitivity at 94% specificity for a PPV of 0.5. All t hree CDT tests show the same negative predictive value (0.98). Both Ax is procedures perform better than IEF/IB/LD in the diagnosis of alcoho l abuse; %CDT TIA is available in several semiautomated, cost-effectiv e formats.