Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin as a Marker of Alcohol Abuse

Overview

Last decade witnessed the increasing use of serum levels of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) as a highlyspecific and sensitive marker of chronic alcoholism. This paper deals with the explanation of the physiologicalprinciple of the test and the development of laboratory techniques of CDT measurement. The evaluation of thestate-of-art of CDT tests is based on published data as well as on the practical experience of the author with threecommercial diagnostic kits.The second part of the review article draws attention to some still open questions of how to harmonise the differentmethodologies used. The use of the CDT measurement in various clinical settings, the specificity and sensitivity ofCDT in different population samples and/or in comparison with already established markers such as GGT is discussed.

Key words:
alcoholism, carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, methodology, clinical use