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Phosphatidylethanol as a sensitive and specific biomarker-comparison with gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, mean corpuscular volume and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin

Hartmann, S. ; Aradottir, Steina LU ; Graf, M. ; Wiesbeck, G. ; Lesch, O. ; Ramskogler, K. ; Wolfersdorf, M. ; Alling, Christer LU and Wurst, F. M. (2007) In Addiction Biology 12(1). p.81-84
Abstract
Phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a direct ethanol metabolite, is detectable in blood for more than 2 weeks after sustained ethanol intake. Our aim was to assess the usefulness of PEth [comparing sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC)] as compared with carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), calculating the results from sober patients against those from alcohol-dependent patients during withdrawal. Fifty-six alcohol-dependent patients (ICD-10 F 10.25) in detoxification, age 43 years, GGT 81 U/l, MCV 96.4 fl, %CDT 4.2, 1400 g ethanol intake in the last 7 days (median), were included in the study. Over the time of 1 year, 52 samples from 35 sober forensic... (More)
Phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a direct ethanol metabolite, is detectable in blood for more than 2 weeks after sustained ethanol intake. Our aim was to assess the usefulness of PEth [comparing sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC)] as compared with carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), calculating the results from sober patients against those from alcohol-dependent patients during withdrawal. Fifty-six alcohol-dependent patients (ICD-10 F 10.25) in detoxification, age 43 years, GGT 81 U/l, MCV 96.4 fl, %CDT 4.2, 1400 g ethanol intake in the last 7 days (median), were included in the study. Over the time of 1 year, 52 samples from 35 sober forensic psychiatric addicted in-patients [age 34 years, GGT 16 U/l, MCV 91 fl, CDT 0.5 (median)] in a closed ward were drawn and used for comparison . PEth was measured in heparinized whole blood with a high-performance liquid chromatography method. GGT, MCV and %CDT were measured using routine methods. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was carried out, with 'current drinking status' (sober/drinking) as the state variable and PEth, MCV, GGT and CDT as test variables. The resulting AUC was 0.974 (P < 0.0001, confidence interval 0.932-1.016) for PEth. At a cut-off of 0.36 mu mol/l, the sensitivity was 94.5% and specificity 100%. The AUC for CDT, GGT and MCV were 0.931, 0.894 and 0.883, respectively. A significant Spearman's rank correlation was found between PEth and GGT (r = 0.739), CDT (r = 0.643), MVC (r = 0.639) and grams of ethanol consumed in the last 7 days (r = 0.802). Our data suggest that PEth has potential to be a sensitive and specific biomarker, having been found in previous studies to indicate longer lasting intake of higher amounts of alcohol. (Less)
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ALCOHOL-USE, mean corpuscular, MALES, STATE, BRAIN, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, specificity, phosphatidylethanol, sensitivity, volume, PHOSPHOLIPASE-D, RAT ORGANS, BLOOD, MARKERS, ETHANOL TREATMENT, harmful ethanol intake
in
Addiction Biology
volume
12
issue
1
pages
81 - 84
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000244417000010
  • scopus:33947182580
  • pmid:17407500
ISSN
1369-1600
DOI
10.1111/j.1369-1600.2006.00040.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c077ced3-e884-40cc-82d3-5410df6399d5 (old id 1416871)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:58:47
date last changed
2022-04-28 22:50:32
@article{c077ced3-e884-40cc-82d3-5410df6399d5,
  abstract     = {{Phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a direct ethanol metabolite, is detectable in blood for more than 2 weeks after sustained ethanol intake. Our aim was to assess the usefulness of PEth [comparing sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC)] as compared with carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV), calculating the results from sober patients against those from alcohol-dependent patients during withdrawal. Fifty-six alcohol-dependent patients (ICD-10 F 10.25) in detoxification, age 43 years, GGT 81 U/l, MCV 96.4 fl, %CDT 4.2, 1400 g ethanol intake in the last 7 days (median), were included in the study. Over the time of 1 year, 52 samples from 35 sober forensic psychiatric addicted in-patients [age 34 years, GGT 16 U/l, MCV 91 fl, CDT 0.5 (median)] in a closed ward were drawn and used for comparison . PEth was measured in heparinized whole blood with a high-performance liquid chromatography method. GGT, MCV and %CDT were measured using routine methods. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was carried out, with 'current drinking status' (sober/drinking) as the state variable and PEth, MCV, GGT and CDT as test variables. The resulting AUC was 0.974 (P &lt; 0.0001, confidence interval 0.932-1.016) for PEth. At a cut-off of 0.36 mu mol/l, the sensitivity was 94.5% and specificity 100%. The AUC for CDT, GGT and MCV were 0.931, 0.894 and 0.883, respectively. A significant Spearman's rank correlation was found between PEth and GGT (r = 0.739), CDT (r = 0.643), MVC (r = 0.639) and grams of ethanol consumed in the last 7 days (r = 0.802). Our data suggest that PEth has potential to be a sensitive and specific biomarker, having been found in previous studies to indicate longer lasting intake of higher amounts of alcohol.}},
  author       = {{Hartmann, S. and Aradottir, Steina and Graf, M. and Wiesbeck, G. and Lesch, O. and Ramskogler, K. and Wolfersdorf, M. and Alling, Christer and Wurst, F. M.}},
  issn         = {{1369-1600}},
  keywords     = {{ALCOHOL-USE; mean corpuscular; MALES; STATE; BRAIN; gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase; specificity; phosphatidylethanol; sensitivity; volume; PHOSPHOLIPASE-D; RAT ORGANS; BLOOD; MARKERS; ETHANOL TREATMENT; harmful ethanol intake}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{81--84}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Addiction Biology}},
  title        = {{Phosphatidylethanol as a sensitive and specific biomarker-comparison with gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, mean corpuscular volume and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1369-1600.2006.00040.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1369-1600.2006.00040.x}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}