Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on April 19, 2006
Alcohol and Alcoholism, doi:10.1093/alcalc/agl027
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1 Department of Laboratory Medicine Division of Clinical Chemistry and Pharmacology, Lund University Hospital, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Aims: Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is an abnormal phospholipid formed only in the presence of ethanol by the enzyme phospholipase D. PEth in blood is a promising new marker for ethanol abuse. None of the biological markers used at the present time is sensitive and specific enough for the diagnosis of alcoholism. Methods: The most frequently used alcohol markers [carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and mean corpuscular volume (MCV)] were studied together with PEth in actively drinking alcohol-dependent patients (inpatients and outpatients), with regard to correlation to ethanol intake and diagnostic sensitivity of the markers. The relation between the markers was also studied. Results: PEth, CDT, and GGT correlated to ethanol intake, with the strongest correlation found for PEth. The diagnostic sensitivity for PEth was 99%, and for other markers it varied between 40 and 77%. Only when CDT was combined with GGT was a sensitivity of 94% reached. PEth correlated to CDT and GGT but not to MCV. CDT did not correlate to GGT or MCV. Conclusions: Blood concentrations of PEth are highly correlated to ethanol intake, and the present results indicate that its diagnostic sensitivity is higher than that for previously established alcohol markers.
Received October 31, 2005
Revised March 16, 2006
Accepted March 16, 2006
Article
PHOSPHATIDYLETHANOL (PEth) CONCENTRATIONS IN BLOOD ARE CORRELATED TO REPORTED ALCOHOL INTAKE IN ALCOHOL-DEPENDENT PATIENTS
STEINA ARADOTTIR 1 *,
GULBER ASANOVSKA 2,
STEFAN GJERSS 3,
PER HANSSON 4,
and
CHRISTER ALLING 1
2 Department of Clinical Alcohol Research, Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
3 Department of Primary Health Care, Lund, Sweden
4 Laboratory for Clinical Chemistry, South Älvsborg Hospital, Borås, Sweden
STEINA ARADOTTIR, E-mail: steina.aradottir{at}med.lu.se
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