Diagnostic usefulness of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin for detecting alcohol-related problems in hospitalized patients.

We evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) for detecting alcohol-related problems (ARP) in hospitalized patients, assessed potential differences according to gender and age, and compared this value to the othe r screen- ing measures conventionally used, namely the CAGE questionnaire and standard biological markers MCV (mean corpuscular volume) and GGT (γ-glutamyltransferase). CDT sensitivity for detecting ARP was 70%, specificity 75% and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.76%. Its sensitivity was shown to be lower both in the female group (65 vs 71%) as well as in the younge r-age group whereas its specificity was lower in the liver-damaged group (55%). CDT diagnostic value did not exceed that of CAGE (sensitivity 78% and specificity 99%), MCV (sensitivity and specificity 74%) or GGT (sensitivity 82% and specificity 53%) but w as better than those of other biochemical measures. We conclude that CDT is an effective biological marker for the detection of AR P among hospitalized patients, but that its diagnostic usefulness does not exceed that of some other alternative measures commonl y used.