Alcohol consumption, liver function tests and nutritional status in Thai males.

31 healthy Thai males, 22 Thai male regular drinkers not suffering from any clinical signs or symptoms of alcoholism, and 52 patients from a neurological hospital in Bangkok suffering from the effects of chronic alcohol consumption were investigated. Alcohol consumption in asymptomatic drinkers ranged from 7 to 134 (median 44) g/d ethanol, and for the patients 22 to 517 (median 197) g/d ethanol, as assessed by questionnaires. The symptomatic alcohol drinkers had consumed alcohol for 2 to 35 years and the hospitalized patients for 5 to 40 years. Only the median levels of serum triglycerides and serum glutamyl transferase (gamma-G) were significantly increased and vitamin B1 deficiency was found with higher frequency in the group of alcohol drinkers without clinical signs compared with the healthy non-alcohol drinkers. Statistically significant correlations were demonstrated in the group of asymptomatic alcohol drinkers only, between alcohol consumption and the Quetelet's index, gamma-G, and alkaline phosphatase levels. Alkaline phosphatase also correlated significantly with gamma-G. In the group of hospitalized patients, compared with healthy males statistically significantly higher median values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum triglyceride, gamma-G, aspartate aminotransferase (GOT), alanine aminotransferase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase, haemoglobin, hematocrit, folate and total protein were found. The median levels of cholesterol, bilirubin, vitamin B2, B6 and B12 in the hospitalized group were lower than, but not significantly different from the other two groups.