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Biological Markers of Alcohol Consumption and Effect of Calcitonin in Nonalcoholic Men: A Prospective, Double‐Blind Study
Author(s) -
Elomaa VilleVeikko,
Löyttyniemi Eliisa,
Kärkkäinen Päivi,
Salaspuro Mikko,
Laitinen Kalevi
Publication year - 1996
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.1530-0277.1996.tb05259.x
Subject(s) - carbohydrate deficient transferrin , medicine , alcohol , placebo , prospective cohort study , ethanol , transferrin , alcohol consumption , endocrinology , gastroenterology , chemistry , biochemistry , pathology , alternative medicine
The objective of this study was to study the ability of biological markers of alcohol consumption in differentiating subjects below weekly consumption of 400 or 600 g of absolute ethanol from those above, and to study the effect of intranasal calcitonin on alcohol drinking. A prospective 12‐week double‐blind study that used anonymous data collection with drinking diaries was done. The drug that was studied (calcitonin or placebo) was used during study weeks5–8. This study was performed at the research unit of a university hospital. The subjects consisted of 59‐nine men aged 26 to 57 years who considered themselves as regular but modest drinkers and were recruited by advertisements. The measurements were obtained from monthly questionnaires and daily anonymous diaries for alcohol drinking data, and biological markers of alcohol consumption (aspartate ami‐notransferase, alanine aminotransferase, y‐glutamyt transpepti‐dase, beta hexosaminidase, and carbohydrate deficient transferrin). The results indicated intranasal calcitonin with a dose of 2001U three times a week had no effect on alcohol use. All biological markers studied had only a modest ability to differentiate those with weekly alcohol consumption of 400 or 600 g or over from those below these limits. The areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with the limit 400 g/week were 0.71 for aspartate aminotransferase, 0.61 for alanine aminotransferase, 0.74 for γ‐glutamyl transpepti‐dase, 0.68 for β‐hexosaminidase, and 0.78 for carbohydrate deficient transferrin. Respective numbers for the 600‐g limit were more uniform. As evaluated by ROC analysis, carbohydrate deficient transferrin was the best biological marker to find men with weekly alcohol consumption over 400 g. lntranasal salmon calcitonin had no affect on alcohol drinking.