Serum carbohydrate deficient transferrin as a sensitive marker in diagnosing alcohol abuse: a case - control study

Alcoholism is a major problem in India thereby causing a heavy toll on the health related expenditure of the country. Detection of alcohol abuse rely mainly on clinical details which is sometimes inaccurate or unreliable and hence using a specific diagnostic parameter might be of immense use not only for early diagnosis but also during follow up of the cases.

This case control study aimed at evaluating the usefulness of Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) as a sensitive marker to diagnose alcohol abuse.

The study was approved by Institutional research and ethical committee. Twenty five known male alcoholics who attended to the OPD (Out Patient Department) of Alcohol de-addiction centre of a tertiary care hospital were selected as cases. All of them were diagnosed to have a strong likely hood of hazardous alcohol consumption based on 'Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test" (AUDIT) questionnaire. Twenty five age matched, gender matched healthy individuals who were teetotalers were selected as controls. They scored zero in AUDIT questionnaire. Informed consent was obtained from all the cases and controls. The following tests were done: Liver function tests including Serum Bilirubin, Total Proteins, Aspartate Amino Transferase (AST), Alanine Amino Transferase (ALT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Gamma Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) and Blood glucose levels were estimated using a fully automated biochemistry analyser, XL - 300 (Trans Asia Biomedical systems) and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) was done using an automated hematology analyser Sysmex KX-21. Percentage of Serum Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (%CDT) was assessed using immuno Turbidimetric assay, ELISA method (iMark, Bio-Rad Laboratories,). Statistical analysis of the data obtained was done using SPSS 16.0.

There was a statistically significant difference in values of AST, ALT, ALP, MCV, GGT and % CDT in cases as compared to controls. ROC curves drawn to assess the sensitivity and specificity of each parameter showed that %CDT has the highest sensitivity and specificity (84% and 92% respectively) and MCV (48% and 52% respectively) had the least. GGT when compared to % CDT had a lower sensitivity and specificity (64% and 72% respectively).

% CDT is a sensitive biomarker which can be used to diagnose alcohol abuse and is superior to GGT in terms of sensitivity as well as specificity.