Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin and chronic alcohol ingestion in subjects with transferrin CD-variants.
Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) is widely accepted as screening test for excessive alcohol consumption. However, results from subjects with transferrin variants must be interpreted with caution since chromatography-based methods may give false-positive results. Furthermore, due to the co-elution in HPLC or the co-migration in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) of the di- and trisialylated C transferrins with the tetrasialylated D peak, exact measurement of CDT is impossible in CD-variants. Therefore, in this study, we tried to offer a different solution, including only the asialo-D, asialo-C, monosialo-D, monosialo-C, disialo-D and trisialo-D transferrins in the CDT calculation and referring to a different cut-off value for CDT in transferrin CD-variants. Comparison of alcohol consumers with teetotalers demonstrated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.79 and 0.76 for carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, 0.71 and 0.71 for mean corpuscular volume and 0.51 and 0.68 for gamma-glutamyltransferase in 43 subjects with transferrin CD-variants and 225 subjects with CC-phenotypes, respectively. Since false-positive carbohydrate-deficient transferrin results due to a transferrin CD-variant have major social implications, capillary electrophoresis-based or similar methods (HPLC, FPLC) should be preferred in populations carrying a high D-allele frequency.
Wuyts
B
B
Department of Clinical Chemistry, Gent University Hospital, Belgium.
Delanghe
J R
JR
Kasvosve
I
I
Gordeuk
V R
VR
Gangaidzo
I T
IT
Gomo
Z A
ZA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000379:methods; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000379:methods; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D013695:Temperance; D014168:Transferrin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*
D015415:Biomarkers; D014168:Transferrin; C056759:carbohydrate-deficient transferrin