Ethanol Metabolites: Their Role in the Assessment of Alcohol Intake

Wurst, Friedrich M; Thon, Natasha; Yegles, Michel; Schröck, Alexandra; Preuss, Ulrich W; Weinmann, Wolfgang (2015). Ethanol Metabolites: Their Role in the Assessment of Alcohol Intake. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 39(11), pp. 2060-2072. Wiley 10.1111/acer.12851

	Text acer12851.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (217kB) | Request a copy
Preview	Text Ethanol metabolites F Wurst ACER review 2015.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (442kB) | Preview

BACKGROUND

Alcohol-related disorders are common, expensive in their course, and often underdiagnosed. To facilitate early diagnosis and therapy of alcohol-related disorders and to prevent later complications, questionnaires and biomarkers are useful.

METHODS

Indirect state markers like gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase, mean corpuscular volume, and carbohydrate deficient transferrin are influenced by age, gender, various substances, and nonalcohol-related illnesses, and do not cover the entire timeline for alcohol consumption. Ethanol (EtOH) metabolites, such as ethyl glucuronide, ethyl sulfate, phosphatidylethanol, and fatty acid ethyl esters have gained enormous interest in the last decades as they are detectable after EtOH intake.

RESULTS

For each biomarker, pharmacological characteristics, detection methods in different body tissues, sensitivity/specificity values, cutoff values, time frames of detection, and general limitations are presented. Another focus of the review is the use of the markers in special clinical and forensic samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Depending on the biological material used for analysis, ethanol metabolites can be applied in different settings such as assessment of alcohol intake, screening, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of alcohol use disorders.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

1264 since deposited on 14 Sep 2015
178 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item