title: Semiautomated procedures for evaluation of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin in the diagnosis of alcohol abuse.
abstract: Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) may now be the most valuable biological marker for diagnosis of alcohol abuse. We compared the diagnostic performance of two new CDT tests, Axis %CDT turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA) and Axis %CDT HPLC, against Specialty Laboratories' isoelectric focusing/immunoblotting/laser densitometry (IEF/IB/LD). Both Axis tests include one-half the concentration of trisialotransferrin isoforms in their CDT quantitation schemes. Considering an alcohol abuse prevalence of 7%, Axis %CDT TIA shows a sensitivity of 87% at 98% specificity 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 three CDT tests show the same negative predictive value (0.98). Both Axis procedures perform better than IEF/IB/LD in the diagnosis of alcohol abuse; %CDT TIA is available in several semiautomated, cost-effective formats.
authors.affiliation: Specialty Laboratories, Inc., Santa Monica, CA 90404-3900, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bean
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liegmann
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Løvli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Westby
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sundrehagen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D008297:Male; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins / Q000032:analysis*; D014168:Transferrin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D012795:Sialoglycoproteins; D014168:Transferrin; C056759:carbohydrate-deficient transferrin; C520536:trisialotransferrin, human