Letter to the Editor Regarding ‘A Comparison Between Serum Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin and Hair Ethyl Glucuronide in Detecting Chronic Alcohol Consumption in Routine’
2015; Oxford University Press; Volume: 50; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/alcalc/agv054
ISSN1464-3502
AutoresCleo L. Crunelle, Adrian Covaci, Michel Yegles, Hugo Neels,
Tópico(s)Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
ResumoTo the Editor: Recently, Bianchi et al. compared serum carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) and hair ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in chronic alcohol abusers claiming abstinence in an impressive cohort ( n = 562) (Bianchi et al. , 2015). Although the results are interesting, some important issues were not addressed. The paper describes a positive EtG by using a cut-off value of 30 pg/mg hair, citing the Society of Hair Testing (SoHT) guidelines. The SoHT, however, proposes two distinct cut-offs to be used in the assessment of alcohol use, a 7 pg/mg (used to distinguish abstinence from social drinking) and a 30 pg/mg cut-off (used to assess excess chronic alcohol consumption >60 g per day) (SoHT guideline on EtG, Cooper et al. , 2012). For proving abstinence, the 30 pg/mg cut-off is not a recommendation. This has implications for the interpretation of data in the article, as it presents ‘negative’ data that may …
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