25424 Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin, Adult (CDTA)

​CDT (Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin), Transferrin for Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT), Transferrin Isoforms, Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin, Adult, Serum (CDTA)

An indicator of chronic alcohol abuse

This test is not appropriate for screening patients for congenital disorders of glycosylation.

Highlights:

Patients with chronic alcoholism demonstrate increased levels of carbohydrate deficient transferrin over the amount of normally glycosylated tetrasialotransferrin.

​This assay has not been fully validated for the investigation of alcoholism.

Carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) testing alone is not recommended for general screening for alcoholism. Analysis of more than 1 biomarker is recommended to avoid misinterpretation of results.

The abnormal transferrin isoform pattern in patients with chronic alcoholism is similar to that observed in congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs). However, unlike most patients with CDG, the relative amount of monoglycosylated transferrin is much lower. Other conditions such as hereditary fructose intolerance, galactosemia, and liver disease may result in increased levels of CDT. In addition, preanalytic variables such as bacterial contamination may cause falsely elevated CDT values. Several factors may cause variability in CDT analysis, including: ethnicity, gender, pregnancy, body mass index, smoking, blood pressure, iron metabolism, drug interactions, chronic medical illness.

Chronic alcoholism causes a transient change in the glycosylation pattern of transferrin where the relative amounts of disialo- and asialotransferrin (carbohydrate deficient transferrin: CDT) are increased over the amount of normally glycosylated tetrasialotransferrin. This recognition led to the use of CDT in serum as a marker for chronic alcohol abuse.

CDT typically normalizes within several weeks of abstinence of alcohol use. However, it is important to recognize that there are other causes of abnormal CDT levels, which include congenital disorders of glycosylation and other genetic and nongenetic causes of acute or chronic liver disease.

CDT testing alone is not recommended for general screening for alcoholism; however, when combined with other methods (ie, gamma-glutamyltransferase, mean corpuscular volume, patient self-reporting, ethylglucuronide analysis), clinicians can expect to identify the majority of patients who consume a large amount of alcohol.