Laboratory Measures of Alcohol (Ethanol) Consumption: Strategies to Assess Drinking Patterns with Biochemical Measures

Abstract

Alcohol (ethanol) use is a global, health-related problem that spans a continuum ranging from low-risk, at-risk, and problem drinking to alcohol dependence and chronic abuse. Clinicians and researchers alike have the need to quantify drinking patterns to determine the risk for adverse, health-related events such as injury, liver damage, and cancer Biochemical measures of ethanol consumption are affected by temporal patterns of drinking as well as individual characteristics such as gender and age. The choice of a laboratory analysis to determine ethanol consumption is complex; no single laboratory test will predict drinking accurately across all drinking patterns, across the life span, and across gender. In conjunction with interviews and physical assessment, however, biochemical laboratory tests are sensitive tools used to measure both recent and long-term patterns of alcohol consumption.

The Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Biomarkers of Alcohol Exposure With Total Serum Immunoglobulin E Levels

“…Beside self-reports, a broad range of laboratory measurements including blood ethanol, serum carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), aspartate-amino transferase (ASAT), alanine-amino transferase (ALAT) may be used as biomarkers of recent as well as long-term exposure to alcohol (Niemela, 2007;Sommers et al, 2003). Possible associations between these laboratory measures and total serum IgE levels have not been reported.…”

Chronic ethanol use in alcoholic beverages by HIV-infected patients affects the therapeutic window of stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine during the 9-month follow-up period: using chronic alcohol-use biomarkers

“…Biomarkers are cellular or molecular indicators of exposure, disease or susceptibility to disease, and in this case, the ethanol exposure. Other chronic alcohol-use biomarkers include the elevation of the carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, sialic acid in serum, ethyl glucuronide, ethyl sulfate, phosphatidyl ethanol, liver enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and MCV [18,21,22]. However, the routinely used chronic alcoholuse biomarkers include GGT, MCV and AST/ALT ratio if above 2.0 [18,21,22].…”

“…The accumulation of ethanol metabolites damages the liver, leading to raised serum enzymes, and also affects hemopoiesis [16,17]. These also affect the serum enzyme levels and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and hence, they are used as chronic alcohol-use biomarkers [18][19][20][21]. Biomarkers are cellular or molecular indicators of exposure, disease or susceptibility to disease, and in this case, the ethanol exposure.…”

“…Other chronic alcohol-use biomarkers include the elevation of the carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, sialic acid in serum, ethyl glucuronide, ethyl sulfate, phosphatidyl ethanol, liver enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and MCV [18,21,22]. However, the routinely used chronic alcoholuse biomarkers include GGT, MCV and AST/ALT ratio if above 2.0 [18,21,22]. The elevation of GGT values above 55.0 UI, MCV values above 96 fl and AST/ALT ratio above 2.0 are indicators of chronic alcohol use.…”

Novel Objective Biomarkers of Alcohol Use: Potential Diagnostic and Treatment Management Tools in Dual Diagnosis Care

“…In the United States alone, alcohol use disorders are associated with 100,000 deaths a year and incur $185 billion in health care and other costs (Sommers, Savage, Wray, & Dyehouse, 2003). Twenty to thirty percent of all hospital admissions may be alcohol-related (Niemela, 2007).…”