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Biomedical subjects

M Salaspuro

Publications and source records attributed to M Salaspuro.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Gamma-glutamyltransferase, aspartate and alanine aminotransferases and their ratio, mean cell volume and urinary dolichol in pregnant alcohol abusers.

OBJECTIVE: To study the activities of serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate and alanine aminotransferases (AST, ALT), and their ratio (AST/ALT), mean erythrocyte cell volume (MCV) and urinary dolichol output in alcohol-abusing pregnant women, and compare the results to those of abstinent pregnant women. DESIGN: Prospective descriptive study. SETTING: Special outpatient clinic for pregnant problem-drinkers in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland. SUBJECTS: 25 pregnant women referred to the special clinic at between 12 and 24 weeks gestation, they consumed at least 150 g of ethanol weekly, and a control group of 20 abstinent pregnant women matched for age, parity and smoking habits. INTERVENTIONS: The women were encouraged to visit the clinic at 2-4 week intervals. At each visit blood and urine samples were obtained, and the women were interviewed on their alcohol consumption during the previous weeks and encouraged to abstain in the future. MEAN OUTCOME MEASURES: Neonatal condition, fetal alcohol effects (FAE) in the newborn. Serum activities of GGT, AST and ALT, the AST/ALT ratio, the MCV, and the urinary concentration of dolichol in alcohol-abusing women with either healthy or FAE infants, compared with those of abstinent women with healthy infants. RESULTS: Of the 25 alcohol-abusing women 13 gave birth to infants with FAE and 12 to healthy infants. All the women in the control group gave birth to healthy infants. GGT, AST and ALT activities were increased in all alcohol-abusing women, regardless whether the infant had FAE or not. GGT was the best of these markers, GGT activities above the 95th normal centile were found in 33% of the samples from all alcohol-abusing women. The AST/ALT ratio, MCV and urinary dolichol concentration were poor indicators of abusive drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal alcohol abuse is difficult to assess by laboratory tests. Of the commonly used and easily available tests, GGT proved to be the best in our study.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in serum as a possible indicator of heavy drinking in young university students.

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in serum was studied as a possible marker of heavy drinking in a sample of 187 female and 102 male 1st year university students from Finland. CDT was measured by a new radioimmunoassay (Pharmacia CDT RIA). Alcohol consumption was measured on a quantity-frequency scale. For female students CDT was 18.2 +/- 0.45 units/liter (mean +/- SEM) and for male students 13.3 +/- 0.48 units/liter. 9.6% of female students and 7.8% of male students had elevated CDT with a cut-off level of 26 units/liter for females and 20 units/liter for males. The correlation between CDT and reported alcohol consumption was 0.30 (p less than 0.001) for females and 0.25 (p = 0.014) for males. Those reporting a consumption of at least 10 kg of pure ethanol per year were considered as heavy drinkers (3.7% of females and 22.5% of males). In female students the average CDT of heavy drinkers did not differ significantly from that of social drinkers but in teetotalers CDT was significantly (p less than 0.03) lower than in female alcohol users. In male students the average CDT of heavy drinkers was higher than the average of social drinkers (p less than 0.1) and significantly higher than the average of teetotalers (p less than 0.001). In the detection of heavy drinking among male students elevated CDT had a specificity of 96.2% and a sensitivity of 21.7%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Effect of calcitonin on the alcohol drinking of rats.

Previous work has shown that calcitonin inhibits eating by rats and that it affects several neurotransmitter systems suspected to play a role in alcohol consumption. The present study was an initial test of whether calcitonin does affect voluntary alcohol consumption by male Wistar rats with prolonged alcohol experience. Calcitonin (20 IU/kg) or saline was injected subcutaneously on 10 consecutive days when the rats (n = 20) had continual access to 10% (v/v) ethanol solution, and to food and water. Using a cross-over design, the effects of 40 IU/kg calcitonin vs. saline were then examined in a second 10-day treatment period. Similar patterns of effects were obtained with both calcitonin doses, but the patterns differed with alcohol, food, and water intake. Alcohol drinking showed biphasic changes with both doses, producing highly significant Treatment x Day interactions (p < 1E-10 and p = 6E-7): it was significantly reduced on the first day of calcitonin treatment and significantly increased on the last few days. Food intake was reduced on all calcitonin days although most markedly on the first. Water drinking was not altered on the first calcitonin day, but was greatly increased on the second, then gradually returned toward the baseline. In a second experiment, the animals were switched to 1 hr of alcohol access per day, and calcitonin (20 IU/kg) was administered periodically to one group 4 hr before the alcohol access. Alcohol drinking was significantly reduced in all cases when the calcitonin injection was preceded by at least 1 day without calcitonin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1992

Effect of alcohol on urinary and blood dolichols.

Alcohol appears to affect dolichol metabolism, as both serum and urinary dolichol concentrations were found to be significantly higher in alcoholics than in social drinkers. Furthermore, acute heavy drinking (5.5 g alcohol/kg body weight during 42 h) increased urinary dolichol excretion significantly, whereas moderate drinking (60 g/day for 10 days) had no effect. Increased urinary dolichol concentrations in alcoholics returned rapidly to normal with a half-life decay of 3 days, whereas increased serum dolichol concentrations did not change during a 7-day observation period. The mechanism behind alcohol-induced alterations in dolichol metabolism remains unclear, but based on our results, it seems likely that serum and urinary dolichols are regulated independently from each other.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1992

Blood dolichol in lysosomal diseases.

Highly elevated serum total dolichol (free dolichol + dolichyl ester) concentrations have recently been found in two lysosomal storage diseases, aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) and mannosidosis. The present study demonstrates that the increase of serum dolichol in AGU patients is caused by an increase of serum free dolichol. In 15 patients the mean serum level of free dolichol (227 +/- 16 ng/mL) was 1.9 times higher (p < 0.001) than that in healthy controls (120 +/- 6 ng/mL), while the amounts of dolichol fatty acid esters were similar in the patients and controls (110 +/- 9 vs. 118 +/- 6 ng/mL). In contrast, 10 patients with neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis (NCL) (three with infantile, four with juvenile, and three with variant late infantile NCL) had significantly (p < 0.01) lower mean serum levels of both free (79 +/- 5 ng/mL) and total (159 +/- 6 ng/mL) dolichol than age-adjusted healthy controls (free, 100 +/- 6 ng/mL; total, 206 +/- 14 ng/mL). Decreased blood dolichol has not been reported earlier for any other disease. We conclude that the increased serum free dolichol in AGU reflects disturbed lysosomal function and that the decreased free and esterified dolichols in NCLs speak against their presumed primary lysosomal nature.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Strenuous physical activity, aspirin and heat stress increase urinary dolichols: evidence for lysosomal origin of urinary dolichols.

Strenuous physical activity, aspirin and heat stress (Finnish sauna) were all found to significantly increase urinary dolichol excretion. In contrast, serum dolichol concentration studied before and after aspirin and sauna, was not affected. A similar aspirin-induced increase, as seen in urinary dolichol concentration, was also observed in the urinary excretion of two lysosomal enzymes--beta-hexosaminidase and beta-glucuronidase. In contrast, the excretion of two non-lysosomal enzymes--lactate dehydrogenase and leucine aminopeptidase--was not affected. The lack of correlation between serum and urinary dolichols, and the parallel increase in urinary dolichols and the activities of the lysosomal enzymes suggest that urinary dolichols may be derived from the lysosomes of the renal cells. We conclude that the finding of increased urinary dolichol concentrations in some relatively common conditions limits the clinical use of urinary dolichols as a diagnostic tool in neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis or alcoholism.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Serum beta-hexosaminidase in young university students.

In a sample of 203 first-year university students, serum beta-hexosaminidase (beta-HEX) was studied as a possible marker of heavy drinking. There are no previous studies on beta-HEX in a young nonalcoholic population. All students were healthy and without regular medication except the use of p-pills in 49 of the 123 female students. Alcohol consumption was measured on a frequency-volume scale. Serum beta-HEX did not correlate with reported drinking, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) nor alcohol problems. The mean beta-HEX of 26 teetotalers did not differ from that of the heaviest drinking group (n = 25). A new finding was a significant (p = 0.009) increase of serum beta-HEX in female students using oral contraceptives. We conclude that serum beta-HEX is a poor indicator of alcohol consumption in young university students and if elevated the use of p-pills must be considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Serum dolichols in different clinical conditions.

We studied the effect of seven different clinical diseases (viral infections, bacterial infections, malignant diseases, cardiovascular diseases, gastroenterological diseases, endocrinological diseases, and rheumatic diseases) as well as normal pregnancy on serum dolichol concentrations in 76 hospitalized patients and in 10 pregnant women. In contrast to urinary dolichols, serum dolichols were not significantly increased in any of these conditions, suggesting that dolichol levels in serum and urine are independently regulated. Furthermore, we found that serum dolichol concentration does not undergo diurnal variation, as in healthy volunteers time of blood sampling did not affect serum dolichols. Our results suggest that serum dolichol concentration, which has earlier been found to be exceptionally high in aspartylglucosaminuria and mannosidosis, might serve as a laboratory marker for these recessively inherited lysosomal storage diseases.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

beta-Hexosaminidase in the detection of alcoholism and heavy drinking.

The activities of beta-hexosaminidase (HEX), a lysosomal glycosidase, were studied in serum (sHEX) and urine (uHEX) among men with various drinking habits. Among 32 alcoholics, on the admission to the inpatient detoxification treatment, and among 25 drunkenness arrestees the average sHEX levels were twofold as compared with social drinkers (n = 16) or teetotallers (n = 27). The average urinary excretion of HEX was three times higher among alcoholics than teetotallers. In the detection of heavy drinking (over 60 g of 100% ethanol daily) sHEX and uHEX were more sensitive than serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (sGGT) both in alcoholics (sHEX = 69%, uHEX = 81%, sGGT = 48%) and in drunkenness arrestees (sHEX = 86%, sGGT = 66%). SHEX correlated positively with sASAT (r = 0.46 and 0.74; p < 0.01) and sALAT (r = 0.41 and 0.47; p < 0.01), but not with sGGT. The specificity of sHEX was 98% and that of uHEX 96%. The abstinence of 7-9 days had a significant decreasing effect on sHEX, but not on uHEX. Controlled moderate drinking (60 g of alcohol daily for ten days) was rapidly reflected on sHEX levels but not on uHEX levels. It is concluded that both sHEX and uHEX are sensitive laboratory markers of alcoholism and heavy drinking. As compared to each others sHEX may better reflect recent alcohol intake, whereas uHEX stays longer elevated after the cessation of drinking. HEX can be determined with a simple and inexpensive spectrophotometric method.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1990

Elevated levels of serum dolichol in aspartylglucosaminuria.

Slightly elevated serum dolichol levels have so far been demonstrated only in alcoholics. We now report two diseases with exceptionally high serum dolichol levels. They are autosomal, recessively inherited lysosomal storage diseases, aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) and mannosidosis. In 16 patients with AGU the mean serum level of total dolichols (457 +/- 43 ng/ml) was more than two-fold when compared to healthy controls (170 +/- 4 ng/ml). In two patients with mannosidosis the levels were almost two-fold. The percentage distribution of the dolichol homologues with 18, 19 or 20 isoprene units did not differ between the patients and controls. The inclusion of an additional control group excluded the possible influence of mental retardation and imparied moving ability on the results. Elevated serum dolichols in patients with lysosomal storage diseases may reflect a disturbance in lysosomal function and serve as a diagnostic marker. The biochemical mechanisms leading to this phenomenon remain to be established.

Acetylglucosamine↗
PubMed1990

The effects of moderate drinking and abstinence on serum and urinary beta-hexosaminidase levels.

The effects of moderate alcohol intake on serum (SHEX)- and urinary beta-hexosaminidase (UHEX) were studied in ten healthy volunteers, who ingested 60 g of 100% ethanol daily for 10 days. The drinking period was preceded and followed by an abstinence period. Moderate drinking and abstinence were rapidly and significantly reflected on SHEX, while UHEX levels did not change significantly during the study. Gramma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) decreased during the first abstinence period (P less than 0.05), but stayed thereafter at a constant level. It is concluded that SHEX may better reflect recent alcohol consumption than UHEX, GGT, ASAT or ALAT.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Comparative value of self-report and blood tests in assessing outcome amongst alcoholics.

The study group consisted of 73 employed alcoholics, who were directed to inpatient treatment. They were evaluated (structured interview, GGT, and MCV) before the treatment period and 8 months after the termination of the treatment. Patients with diseases or medications influencing the laboratory tests were not included in the study group. According to the structured interview 72.6% of the patients were drinking in a controlled manner (less than 40 g/d ethanol) during the 2-month period prior to the follow-up evaluation. According to the laboratory data 52.1% of the patients had been drinking in a controlled manner (i.e. both GGT and MCV values were normal). With the interview and laboratory data combined 39.7% of the patients had been drinking in a controlled manner. Thus the drinking outcome was strongly influenced by the selection of the variables used to measure the outcome. It is recommended that no studies should be carried out about the drinking outcome of alcoholism treatment without the use of laboratory markers as a part of the evaluation.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Serum beta-hexosaminidase as a marker of heavy drinking.

Beta-hexosaminidase, also called N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, is a lysosomal glycosidase, which has been found to be increased in the sera of alcoholics admitted to acute detoxification treatment. To study serum beta-hexosaminidase (beta-HEX) as a marker of heavy drinking, it was compared with GGT, ASAT, and ALAT in three study groups: twenty-five drunken arrestees, 16 social drinkers, and 27 teetotallers. Mean serum beta-HEX levels were two times higher among drunken arrestees than among social drinkers or teetotallers. Average daily alcohol intake during the preceding 30 days in the pooled group of drunken arrestees and social drinkers correlated positively (r = 0.69; p less than 0.0001) with serum beta-HEX. The sensitivity of beta-HEX in the detection of heavy drinking, defined as over 60 g ethanol daily, was 85.7% compared to 47.6% for GGT. The specificity of beta-HEX was 97.6%. The positive correlations between beta-HEX and ASAT (r = 0.74; p less than 0.0001) and ALAT (r = 0.41; p less than 0.05) indicate that increased serum beta-HEX level may reflect early liver injury. Serum beta-HEX seems to be a sensitive biological marker of heavy drinking reflecting better the ingested amounts of alcohol than GGT.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Inpatient treatment of employed alcoholics: a randomized clinical trial on Hazelden-type and traditional treatment.

The first randomized clinical trial on the Hazelden-type of treatment showed that this AA-oriented treatment for alcoholism can result in significant improvement in drinking behavior as compared to a more traditional form of treatment. One hundred forty-one employed alcoholics were randomized to either Hazelden-type treatment (N = 74) or to traditional-type treatment (N = 67). The treatment groups were highly comparable. The bimonthly follow-up lasted one year. According to the COPES-questionnaire (short form), the treatment at the Hazelden-type institute was significantly more involving, supportive, encouraging to spontaneity and oriented to personal problems than at the traditional-type institute. In accordance the treatment drop-out rate was 7.9% at Hazelden-type institute and 25.9% at traditional-type institute (p less than 0.02). The participation in outpatient treatment was significantly better after the Hazelden-type treatment. The proportion of those abstinent (admitted ethanol consumption, 0 g/day; gammaglutamyl transferase, and mean cell volume were normal) was higher at Hazelden-type institute during the last (8-12 months) follow-up period (26.3% vs. 9.8%, p = 0.05). Fourteen percent of the Hazeldon-type institute patients and 1.9% of the traditional-type institute patients stayed abstinent during the whole 1-year follow-up period (p less than 0.05). The differences for the corresponding rates for controlled drinking (admitted ethanol consumption less than 40 g/day, GGT, and MCV normal) were in the same direction but did not reach statistical significance. Thus the Hazelden-type treatment obtained better results in 1-year abstinence rate than a more traditional-type treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Laboratory tests in the follow-up of treated alcoholics: how often should testing be repeated?

The study group consisted of 60 male and 13 female alcohol-dependent employed patients who participated in inpatient treatment for alcoholism. They were followed up bimonthly for eight months after the treatment period. The results with GGT, ASAT, ALAT, MCV and the combination of GGT and MCV were studied with respect to the effect of taking the tests once (at eight months), twice (once every four months) or four times (bimonthly). According to our definition, the treatment outcome was good when the laboratory test values were within the normal range during the whole follow-up period. The differences in observed outcome (at eight months after treatment) were small whether one took the tests once at the end of the follow-up period or up to four (i.e. bimonthly) times. Nevertheless, there were some differences between the laboratory markers. To get the most accurate picture of drinking during the follow-up period one should repeat the test bimonthly with ASAT or ALAT, once every four months with GGT (or combined GGT and MCV), and once after eight months with MCV. When the time course of relapses is important for the study the more frequent test taking is also indicated.

Adult↗