Screening for excessive alcohol drinking. Comparative value of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and mean corpuscular volume.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_CC09B99E43CE
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Screening for excessive alcohol drinking. Comparative value of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and mean corpuscular volume.
Journal
Archives of Internal Medicine
ISSN
0003-9926 (Print)
ISSN-L
0003-9926
Publication state
Published
Issued date
1995
Volume
155
Number
17
Pages
1907-1911
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Comparative Study ; Journal Article Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Screening medical patients for excessive alcohol drinking is important because minimal intervention by physicians is effective in reducing excessive consumption. Screening tests, such as biologic markers of alcohol consumption, should therefore be investigated to assess their validity to detect alcohol drinking. METHOD: Levels of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) were determined in 1202 consecutive patients (20 to 75 years old) seen at the medical emergency ward (n = 552) and the primary care center (n = 650) of a city and teaching hospital. Each eligible patient was administered a CAGE questionnaire (an acronym for questions regarding cutting down on drinking, annoyance at others' concern about drinking, feeling guilty about drinking, and using alcohol as an eye-opener in the morning), and for each CAGE-positive patient (score > or = 2) as well as for a random sex-matched sample of CAGE-negative patients, standardized data about the recent level of alcohol drinking, morbidities, drug therapy, and smoking were recorded. The operating characteristics of CDT, GGT, and MCV were determined according to alcohol consumption and the CAGE test. Sensitivities, specificities, and receiver operating characteristic curves were computed to compare the tests at different cutoff values. RESULTS: Levels of CDT were elevated in 21% of men and 7% of women. According to recent alcohol consumption in men (> 60 g/d), the respective sensitivity and specificity of the tests were 0.58 and 0.82 for CDT, 0.69 and 0.65 for GGT, and 0.27 and 0.91 for MCV. Overall, receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated similar performance of the three tests for screening of excessive alcohol drinking or alcohol abuse. However, in young men (< 40 years of age) and in smokers, CDT was superior to GGT or MCV. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that CDT determination may be a useful test for screening programs of excessive alcohol drinking in young male medical patients.
Keywords
Adult, Aged, Alcoholism/blood, Alcoholism/diagnosis, Alcoholism/</QualifierName> <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">, Biological Markers/blood, Erythrocyte Indices, Female, Humans, Male, Mass Screening/methods, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychological Tests, Sensitivity and Specificity, Transferrin/analogs & derivatives, Transferrin/metabolism, gamma-Glutamyltransferase/blood
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
28/01/2008 12:58
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:46