Greater hepatic vulnerability after alcohol intake in African Americans compared with Caucasians: a population-based study.
OBJECTIVE
In the last 40 years, African Americans have experienced higher age-adjusted liver cirrhosis mortality rates than whites. Alcohol use has been hypothesized to be the likely determinant of this disparity in liver disease mortality. This study was aimed at evaluating racial variations in common biomarkers of liver injury, such as gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT), by categories of drinking status and levels of current alcohol use.


METHODS
A cross-sectional analysis of a general population sample of 3304 residents of Erie and Niagara counties in New York State, 35-80 years of age and free from known hepatic disease, stratified by racial group (African-American and white).


RESULTS
Concentrations of GGT were higher for African-Americans than for whites in all categories of drinking status (lifetime abstainers, former and current drinkers) after adjustment for potential confounders (age, sex, education, smoking, and body mass index). However, differences in enzyme mean values between the two racial groups were consistently larger among current drinkers than for either lifetime abstainers or former drinkers. In analyses based on tertiles of alcohol consumption in the last 30 days, differences in GGT mean values between the two races tended to amplify with increasing amounts of consumption.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings seem to support the hypothesis of greater sensitivity to alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity among African-Americans than for whites.
Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions, State University of New York at Buffalo, Farber Hall, Room 252 B, 3435 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14214, USA. stranges@buffalo.edu
Saverio
S
Stranges
Jo L
JL
Freudenheim
Paola
P
Muti
Eduardo
E
Farinaro
Marcia
M
Russell
Thomas H
TH
Nochajski
Maurizio
M
Trevisan
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology*; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044465:White People; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000097:blood
D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase