Serum desialotransferrin in the detection of alcohol abuse.

We developed a method for the quantification of the different fractions of serum transferrin, based on an isoelectric focusing followed by immunofixation. We employed this technique to study whether or not the pattern of the serum transferrin was altered in the serum of drinkers. We established an increase of the fraction that focused at 5.7 (Tf5.7) and a concomittant decrease of the fraction that focused at 5.4 (Tf5.4) in the sera of drinkers. The separation between drinkers and controls was enhanced when using the ratio Tf5.7/Tf5.4, called Tf index. The predictive value of this test was 0.88, which means that 88% of the subjects were correctly classified as heavy drinkers or not.