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Carbohydrate‐Deficient Transferrin in Alcohol and Nonalcohol Abusers with Liver Disease
Author(s) -
Meregalli Maurizio,
Giacomini Valter,
Lino Silvana,
Marchetti Luciano,
DeFeo Tullia,
Cappellini M. Domenica,
Fiorelli Gemino
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1995.tb01018.x
Subject(s) - carbohydrate deficient transferrin , mean corpuscular volume , transferrin , medicine , liver disease , alcohol , gastroenterology , alcohol consumption , endocrinology , chemistry , biochemistry , hematocrit
Carbohydrate‐deficient transferrin (CDT) has been demonstrated to be a marker of prolonged heavy alcohol consumption. We compared this marker with γ‐glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) in alcohol and nonalcohol abusers with liver disease. Our results confirm that the sensitivity of CDT in alcoholics is high, although lower than that of GGT and MCV; however, the specificity of CDT was higher than that of the other two markers. This finding supports the notion that CDT is only partially influenced by the presence of liver damage, whereas increases of GGT and MCV are greatly affected by several factors, including liver damage and drugs. Moreover, we observed that the sensitivity and the specificity of CDT were greater than those of GGT and MCV in younger drinkers.