Excessive and chronic alcohol consumption is a public health problem. Its diagnosis and monitoring improve clinical outcomes, reduce accidents, and lower alcohol-related costs. Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin (CDT) is the biomarker recommended by the IFCC for chronic alcohol abuse. CAPI 3 CDT and MINICAP CDT are designed to quantify CDT by capillary electrophoresis in patient serum samples. During the analysis, serum transferrin isoforms are separated into five major fractions according to their degree of sialylation:

• Asialotransferrin (non-sialylated)

• Disialotransferrin

• Trisialotransferrin

• Tetrasialotransferrin

• Pentasialotransferrin

The CDTIFCC percentage value is automatically displayed based on the calibration curve of disialotransferrin.

If CDTIFCC is not implemented, a conventional CDT percentage value is automatically calculated using the less sialylated isoforms, i.e., disialotransferrin combined with asialotransferrin (if present).

Interpretation is straightforward: CDTIFCC levels above 2% are abnormal and indicate chronic alcohol abuse, while with the conventional CDT, results above 1.6% are abnormal and indicate chronic alcohol abuse.