Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on October 7, 2009
Alcohol and Alcoholism, doi:10.1093/alcalc/agp070
Glutamate Dehydrogenase as a Marker of Alcohol Dependence
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1 Psychiatric Hospital Ormo
, Ptujska Cesta 33, 2270 Ormo, Slovenia and
2 Institute for Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, Slomkov trg 5, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
* Corresponding author: ZPA dr. Kravos, Trg Svobode 26, SI-2310 Slovenska Bistrica, Slovenia. Tel: +386-2-8431146; Fax: +386-2-8431147; E-mail: mk4{at}siol.net
Received 18 May 2009; first review notified 1 July 2009; in revised form 23 July 2009; accepted 8 September 2009
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Abstract |
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Aims: The aim of this study was to examine glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) in the diagnostic combinations as a result of new findings. Methods: GLDH, gama-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate-aminotranferase (AST), alanine-aminotransferase (ALT) and erythrocyte mean cell volume (MCV) were assessed three times in 238 alcoholics admitted to hospital: on admission, after 24 h and after 7 days. Results: All the values were significantly higher than those in healthy persons. The fastest activity decrease was seen in GLDH. The kinetics of GLDH and AST were more applicable than GGT kinetics after a week, but GLDH kinetics were most reliable. GLDH was the most specific laboratory marker with almost 90% specificity. The sensitivity of combination MCV and GLDH kinetics after 1 week of abstinence was pathognomonic by 97.2%. This decision tree gave us a model with 84.5% accuracy. Conclusions: GLDH is an equally accurate marker of alcoholism in comparison to others, if its significantly faster decrease is taken into consideration. We strongly believe that watching changes in the activity of laboratory markers of alcoholism is an effective yet overlooked aid.