Diagnostic sensitivity of carbohydrate deficient transferrin in heavy drinkers

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Peter O’Rourke¹  Katharine M Irvine²  Leigh U Horsfall³  Elizabeth E Powell³  Kevin J Fagan³  Linda M Fletcher⁴  Ian Scott⁵  Carel J Pretorius⁶  Lambro Johnson⁶  Jacobus PJ Ungerer⁶  Brett C McWhinney⁶  Jennifer Martin⁷ 

[1] Cancer and Population Studies Group, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia;Centre for Liver Disease Research, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba 4102, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;Centre for Liver Disease Research, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba 4102, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia;School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;Division of Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia;Pathology Queensland, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia;School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia;Division of Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia;

关键词: Alcohol;    High performance liquid chromatography;    Cirrhosis;    Biomarker;    Obesity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-14-97

 received in 2014-01-17, accepted in 2014-05-14,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Background and AimCarbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) is the most specific serum biomarker of heavy alcohol consumption, defined as ≥ 350–420 g alcohol/week. Despite introduction of a standardized reference measurement technique, widespread use of CDT remains limited due to low sensitivity. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that affect diagnostic sensitivity in patients with sustained heavy alcohol intake.MethodsPatients with a self-reported history of sustained heavy alcohol consumption were recruited from the hepatology outpatient department or medical wards. Each patient was interviewed with a validated structured questionnaire of alcohol consumption and CDT analysis using the standardized reference measurement technique with high performance liquid chromatography was performed on serum collected at time of interview.Results52 patients were recruited: 19 from the hepatology outpatient department and 33 from general medical wards. Median alcohol intake was 1013 (range 366–5880) g/week over the preceding two week period. 26 patients had a diagnostic CDT based on a threshold value of %CDT > 1.7 indicating heavy alcohol consumption, yielding a sensitivity of 50%. Overweight/obesity (defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 in Caucasians and ≥ 23.0 kg/m2 in Asians), female gender and presence of cirrhosis were independently associated with non-diagnostic %CDT (≤ 1.7).ConclusionsCDT has limited sensitivity as a biomarker of heavy alcohol consumption. Caution should be applied when ordering and interpreting %CDT results, particularly in women, patients with cirrhosis and those with an elevated BMI.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Fagan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.