Vitreous humor carbohydrate-deficient transferrin concentrations in the postmortem diagnosis of alcoholism

Deaths from the effects of alcohol intoxication are encountered routinely i n forensic practice. In an important number of cases difficulty may arise i n interpreting the significance of results obtained in the autopsy. In clin ical practice biochemical markers, particularly serum gamma-glutamyl-transp eptidase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST ), carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), and erythocyte mean corpuscula r volume are used to diagnose heavy alcohol consumption. CDT is used as a r eliable and specific marker. In postmortem diagnosis, because of the diffic ulty in interpreting blood alcohol levels and relatively non-specific patho logical features, biochemical compounds have been studied for use as possib le markers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the pos tmortem determination of CDT in vitreous humor as a confirmation of antemor tem alcoholism. CDT levels were studied in 66 male cadavers with a mean age of 55.9 years (S.D. 17.0, range 22-87 years) with a mean postmortem interv al of 17.9 h (S.D. 11.4, range 4-72 h). Cases were assigned to two diagnost ic groups according to the antemortem diagnosis of alcoholism. Statisticall y significant differences were found for CDT and ALT concentrations between the two diagnostic groups. The highest vitreous humor levels of CDT and AL T were obtained in the group of cases with a previous diagnosis of alcoholi sm. Our results suggest that vitreous humor CDT levels are useful in cases where the postmortem diagnosis of alcoholism is hindered by the non-specifi city of data. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.