[CDT: a biological marker of alcohol abuse].
BACKGROUND
Laboratory tests may be useful tools in the identification of heavy drinkers, in identifying the etiological role of alcohol in the onset of the disease, and in monitoring changes in alcohol intake.


OBJECTIVE
An ideal diagnostic marker of alcohol abuse should: be characterized by high specificity and sensitivity; show an high specific correlation with alcohol metabolism; be dependent on alcohol intake and have a relatively short half-life (t1/2) so as to be able to monitor abstinence periods.


CONCLUSIONS
CDT (Carbohydrate-Deficient-Transferrin) meets all these requirements and offers the physician a significant tool as a marker of chronic alcohol abuse. CDT can reveal a daily alcohol consumption of 50-80 g of ethanol, corresponding to a bottle of 11 degrees-13 degrees wine, for two consecutive weeks, with normalization after two weeks of abstinence (t1/2 of CDT is 15 days). Compared with other more common alcohol abuse markers, such as GGT or MCK CDT is more specific and provides more detailed information.
Crespi
Valeria
V
Laboratorio di Tossicologia, UO Medicina del Lavoro e Preventiva, Ospedale di Circolo e Fondazione Macchi, Varese. valeria.crespi@ospedale.varese.it
Andreotta
Ursula
U
Tettamanzi
Elena
E
Ferrario
M M
MM
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D014168:Transferrin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis
D015415:Biomarkers; D014168:Transferrin; C056759:carbohydrate-deficient transferrin