Monitoring Alcohol Misuse with Sebia Minicap

Sebia UK has introduced carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) testing for its Minicap capillary electrophoresis system. Designed for use in diagnostic laboratories, the assay allows biomedical scientists and clinicians to effectively screen and monitor patients for alcohol misuse.

With the number of alcohol-related deaths increasing every year in the UK, early diagnosis of alcohol abuse is critical. Patients often fail to record their alcohol intake accurately or do not report it correctly to healthcare providers. The CDT assay is a sophisticated technique for diagnosing alcoholism, allowing clinicians to provide the best course of treatment for the patient.

Transferrin is a glycoprotein present in the blood which transports iron around the body. It is composed of a protein backbone with carbohydrate side-chains attached. Transferrin usually has between three and five side-chains; however following excessive alcohol consumption a higher proportion of the transferrin has only two side-chains or less. The levels of this CDT in the blood can be measured and used as a biomarker to monitor alcohol abuse.

CDT is unaffected by other conditions such as mild alcohol-related liver disease, fatty liver, B12 / folate deficiencies or other chronic diseases. These conditions can falsely increase gamma glutamyl-transferase or mean corpuscular volume, the markers commonly used to diagnose alcohol misuse. In addition, CDT gives an indication of alcohol consumption over the previous one to two weeks whereas other markers only remain elevated for 24 - 48 hours.

The fully automated assay available on Minicap has a throughput of 22 samples per hour, providing a graphical presentation of test results for each sample. Already available on the higher throughput capillarys, the assay is a reliable and cost-effective tool for diagnosing and monitoring alcohol abuse, with improved specificity over other more labour-intensive methods.