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A useful test for monitoring alcohol use.

Article Excerpt
Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin, known as "%CDT," is a blood test to detect heavy alcohol use (five or more drinks a day) over the past two weeks. (1) This alcohol biomarker can provide clinicians with an objective way to screen and monitor clients in treatment for alcohol use disorders. %CDT monitoring is used by counselors to evaluate whether heavy alcohol use is complicating other diagnoses (e.g., cocaine use, psychiatric conditions); to evaluate a treatment plan's effectiveness; to detect "slips" to prevent relapse; and to provide an objective measure of drinking that avoids the counselor/client debate about whether the client is drinking.

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Transferrin is a glycoprotein (a molecule made of amino acids and sugar groups) produced in liver cells. Its purpose is to "transfer" (hence, the word "trans") iron molecules (hence the word "ferrin") from the intestine, through the blood stream, to cells and organs that need iron to function; it is present in everyone under normal conditions. Normal transferrin has sugar groups (carbohydrates) attached to it as "side-chains" (the protein is like a motorcycle and the sugar groups like...