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Serum and Saliva Levels of Sialic Acid Are Elevated in Alcoholics
Author(s) -
Pönniö Maritta,
Alho Hannu,
Heinälä Pekka,
Nikkari Seppo T.,
Sillanaukee Pekka
Publication year - 1999
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.1530-0277.1999.tb04225.x
Subject(s) - sialic acid , saliva , alcohol , urine , alcohol abuse , medicine , gastroenterology , endocrinology , chemistry , biochemistry , psychiatry
Background and Methods: Recently, sialic acid has been suggested as a potential marker for alcohol abuse. In this study, social drinkers and alcoholics were analyzed with a modified version of Warren's method for sialic acid and traditional markers of alcohol abuse in serum ( n = 38; n = 87), saliva ( n = 36; n = 29), and urine ( n = 37; n = 83), respectively. The alcoholics were participating in an alcohol dependency treatment program and were followed in this study for 5 weeks. Results: The sialic acid concentrations in female and male alcoholics were significantly higher in serum ( p < 0.001; p < 0.001 respectively) and saliva ( p < 0.05; p < 0.05) but not in urine, compared with social drinkers. The diagnostic efficiency of serum sialic acid was higher than that for traditional markers: 77% for female subjects and 64% for male subjects. The corresponding results for saliva were 72% and 53%. The sialic acid concentrations were significantly decreased during the alcohol dependency treatment program (after 5 weeks of treatment) in both females and males. Conclusions: This study confirms that serum sialic acid is a valuable marker for detecting and monitoring alcohol abuse. This work also indicates that sialic acid in saliva could be used possibly as a noninvasive marker for alcohol abuse.