[Detection of excessive chronic alcoholic consumption and control of withdrawal. Comparative study of respective values of the mean red-cell volume and serum gamma-glutamyl-transferase activity].

The routine detection of chronic alcoholism is necessary during any medical examination whether private or in hospital, or in occupational medicine. The practitionner now has available a simple reliable and cheap test. It consists of the serum estimation of gamma-glutamyl-transferase (gammaGT) and interpretation of the average red cell volume supplied by automatic counting of the red cell. Out of 120 chronic alcoholic subjects ; 67% has a gammaGT increased and 44% had macrocytosis. Under the influence of weaning, there was a rapid fall in gammaGT and a slower reduction in average red cell volume. gammaGT estimation was thus a more sensitive test than M.C.V. for the detection of chronic alcoholics and the control of withdrawal. Its association with the rise in immunoglobulin A-transferrin ratio which we have suggested permits the detection of almost all chronic alcoholics in the population studied.