Phospholipids as Biomarkers for Excessive Alcohol Use

Abstract

The study is designed to evaluate the utility of levels of two phospholipids in serum as a marker of past drinking behavior across month-level time horizons, in an attempt to improve ability to measure alcohol quantity consumed and associated damage better than can be done with ethyl alcohol level measures and other existing tests that only measure very recent exposure and poorly reflect quantity consumed. This will be achieved by correlating detailed questionnaire data on alcohol consumption with serum phospholipid levels in subjects not selected for alcohol abuse (part I) and subjects under alcohol abuse treatment (part II). The Department of Defense-funded study will conduct Part I at the VA hospital and Part II at the Fairbanks treatment facility. Part I involves a single study session (n=280), while Part II will involve serial blood draws and phospholipid measures at several treatment visits (n=60). The study is open to 280 subjects for Part I, and 60 subjects for part II. Part I has 179 consented, and 18 screen fails; Part II has 33 consented (one withdrew from the study) and 8 screen fails. The study is currently active and analysis has not been completed. Since the inception of the study, we have not experienced any problems with subjects recruitment. To date, we have recruited 197 subjects into Part I of the study and 41 subjects into part II.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA593134

Entities

People

  • Chi Westerhold
  • Rachel Bennett
  • Suthat Liangpunsakul

Organizations

  • Indiana University Bloomington

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Biological Markers
  • Biomedical Research
  • Brain
  • Brain Injuries
  • Department Of Defense
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Homosexuality
  • Hospitals
  • Human Behavior
  • Iraqi-War
  • Liver Diseases
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Personnel
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Clinical Trial Research.
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Systems Analysis and Design