Clinical Chemistry
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Clinical Chemistry 44: 1069-1071, 1998;
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(Clinical Chemistry. 1998;44:1069-1071.)
© 1998 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Letters

Evaluation of Carbohydrate-deficient Transferrin

Torsten Arndt1a and Rolf Hackler2

1 Bioscientia, Inst. f. Laboruntersuchungen Ingelheim GmbH, Hamburger Str. 1, D-55218 Ingelheim, Germany,
2 Puderbacher Weg 56, D-57334 Bad Laasphe, Germany

aAuthor for correspondence.


To the Editor:

Recently Bean et al. (1) compared isoelectric focusing/immunoblotting/laser densitometry (IEF/IB/LD), Axis %CDT TIA, and Axis %CDT HPLC for the determination of CDT. This study shows shortcomings that need further discussion.

1. The three methods, as presented in Materials and Methods in that paper, are not semiautomated. The statement that "similar results are obtained on an array of turbidimetric instruments ... " on page 987 cannot be deduced from the data presented. None of the 10 analyzers mentioned was tested in this study, and appropriate references are not given. Thus, the title does not reflect the content of the paper.

2. On page 983, the authors state that "inclusion of the trisialotransferrin fraction increases the accuracy in the diagnosis of sustained alcohol usage." However, on page 988, the discussion ends with "whether the inclusion of the trisialotransferrins results in improved efficacy of the test awaits further analysis... "

3. Predictive values, diagnostic sensitivities, and specificities strongly depend on the definition of false positives and negatives and patients’ sex and liver function (2). However, no information is given on how daily alcohol consumption for groups 1–4 was verified. Furthermore, groups 2–4 combine men and women (with and without alcohol-induced liver disease). Although gender-specific upper reference limits of CDT are described in detail and generally accepted (2), the authors establish gender-nonspecific cutoffs without giving any reasons for this procedure.

4. The study illustrates the need for a unified definition of CDT. On page 983, the IEF/IB/LD is said to summarize asialo-, mono-, and disialotransferrins as CDT; on pages 984, 987, and 988, only asialo- and disialotransferrin. %CDT TIA analyzes asialo-, mono-, di-, and 50% of trisialotransferrin; %CDT HPLC mono-, di-, and 50% of trisialotransferrin but not asialotransferrin (pages 984–985). IEF/IB/LD measures partially iron-loaded, %CDT TIA, and %CDT . . . [Full Text of this Article]


References

Pamela Bean

Specialty Laboratories, 2211 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404, Fax 608-833-3458

aAuthor for correspondence.


To the Editor:


References






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Copyright © 1998 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.