[Discussion of the interest of estimation of hydroxyprolinuria in chronic alcoholism (author's transl)].

24 hour hydroxyprolinuria was measured in 50 chronic alcoholics divided up into those with simple alcoholism and those complicated by cirrhosis. All the patients had a significant increase in hydroxyprolinuria. Without there being any difference between cirrhotics and alcoholics without cirrhosis. Comparison between hydroxyprolinuria and the tests usually used to follow the course of hepatic involvement in chronic alcoholism: IgA, transferrin, electrophoresis of serum proteins, alkaline phosphatase, show that there is no correlation between hydroxyprolinuria and the diagnostic or prognostic tests of an alcoholic liver among which the variable IgA is the most significant. On the other hand, hydroxyprolinuria has a linear correlation with the calciuria, which suggests that the increase in hydroxyprolinuria in chronic alcoholics is more related to changes in the collagen of bone tissue than with those in liver tissue.