Comparison of Ethyl Glucuronide and Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin in Different Body Fluids for Post-mortem Identification of Alcohol Use.

AIMS: Alcohol abuse is a major risk factor for premature death. Confirming the role of alcohol consumption in cause-of-death investigations has, however, remained difficult, due to lack of reliable biomarkers. METHODS: We compared ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT)...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 55 - 60
Main Authors: Rainio, Juha, Ahola, Sanna, Kangastupa, Päivikki, Kultti, Johanna, Tuomi, Heidi, Karhunen, Pekka J., Helander, Anders, Niemelä, Onni
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Jan/Feb2014
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=107880285&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 107880285
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        07350414
        FA3
      jtl: Alcohol & Alcoholism
      issn: 07350414
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jan/Feb2014
      vid: 49
      iid: 1
      pid: 622
      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
    artinfo:
      ui:
        107880285
        93730154
        10.1093/alcalc/agt159
        NLM24154730
        107880285
      ppf: 55
      ppct: 5
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
      tig:
        atl: Comparison of Ethyl Glucuronide and Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin in Different Body Fluids for Post-mortem Identification of Alcohol Use.
      aug:
        au:
          Rainio, Juha
          Ahola, Sanna
          Kangastupa, Päivikki
          Kultti, Johanna
          Tuomi, Heidi
          Karhunen, Pekka J.
          Helander, Anders
          Niemelä, Onni
        affil: Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland
      sug:
        subj:
          Transferrin Classification
          Body Fluids
          Alcohol Drinking Evaluation
          Alcohol Abuse
          Postmortem Care Evaluation
          Human
          Comparative Studies
          T-Tests
          Nonparametric Statistics
          Mann-Whitney U Test
          Pearson's Correlation Coefficient
          Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient
          ROC Curve
          Data Analysis Software
      ab: AIMS: Alcohol abuse is a major risk factor for premature death. Confirming the role of alcohol consumption in cause-of-death investigations has, however, remained difficult, due to lack of reliable biomarkers. METHODS: We compared ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) assays from serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid and vitreous humor in a forensic autopsy population with either a positive (n = 38) or negative (n = 22) history of alcohol abuse based on detailed medical and police records and forensic toxicological investigations. RESULTS: A positive blood alcohol concentration (median 1.15‹, range 0-3.3‹) was found in 26/38 (68%) of the cases with a documented history of alcohol abuse. EtG concentrations (mean ± SD) in urine (339 ± 389 mg/l, P < 0.001), vitreous humor (4.2 ± 4.8 mg/l, P < 0.001), serum (6.9 ± 8.9 mg/l, P < 0.01) and cerebrospinal fluid (1.7 ± 2.7 mg/l, P < 0.01) were significantly higher among the cases with a positive history of alcohol use than those in the alcohol-history negative group, whereas in corresponding comparisons CDT was significantly different only in cerebrospinal fluid (4.3 ± 2.1 vs. 2.3 ± 0.6%, P < 0.05). The highest sensitivities (92%) in detecting ante-mortem alcohol use were obtained for urine and vitreous humor EtG assays. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that measurements of EtG in urine or vitreous humor show the highest diagnostic accuracies in post-mortem investigations of excessive alcohol consumption and can be recommended for routine applications.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N