Improved Diagnostic Classification of Alcohol Abusers by Combining Carbohydrate-deficient Transferrin and γ-Glutamyltransferase

Background: Biochemical markers can provide objective evidence of high alcohol consumption. However, currently available markers have limitations in their diagnostic performance. Methods: The diagnostic values of the most frequently used markers [carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and mean corpuscular volume] were studied in an analysis of six different clinical studies (n = 1412) on alcohol abusers and social drinkers. The purpose of the analyses was to determine whether a combination of markers would improve the diagnosis of subjects. Results: Discrimination between alcohol abusers and social drinkers, as measured by the areas under nonparametric ROC plots, was significantly better (P Conclusions: The combined variable γ-CDT is a powerful tool to discriminate alcohol abusers from social drinkers and is recommended for clinical use.