Assessment of chronic alcoholism by medical examination

The accumulated data from a defined medical examination of 561 male alcoholics is reported and analysed using a simple artificial index of the severity of alcohol injury which describes each patient in a single parameter; the alcohol related toxicity quotient (ARTq). The results indicate that after an average of twelve days sobriety, the clinical assessment of ataxia is a more consistent guide to chronic alcoholism than a previous history of intervention by a therapeutic agency or the more complex tests of mean cell volume (MCV) or gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT). However, the ARTq correlates with each of these indices better than they intercorrelate between themselves. The findings are discussed in relation to the pathological lesions and natural history of alcoholism.