Introduction: Heavy consumption of alcohol can cause untold misery to the individual, who is usually affected by other physical, psychological and social disabilities as well. In chronic alcoholism the liver cells are damaged and since albumin is solely synthesized in the liver there is hypoalbuminemia. On the other hand serum globulin levels are raised leading to altered Albumin/Globulin ratio. The study was conducted with the objective to assess and compare the levels of Serum Protein and its fractions in patients of alcohol dependence with equal number of age and sex matched healthy controls.

Materials and Methods:  This was a hospital based case control study conducted on 100 inpatients of alcohol dependence and equal number of age and sex matched controls. Blood samples were collected from the patients on the first day of admission and, Serum Protein, Albumin were measured using Biuret Reaction and Bromocresol Green method respectively. The results were analysed using SPSS Version 16.0 setting the significance threshold at p=0.05.

Results: There was significant elevation of Serum Globulin in patients of alcohol dependence when compared to controls. On the other hand Serum Protein and Albumin were significantly lower in alcohol dependent cases compared to healthy controls.

Conclusion: Alcohol induced hepatic damage and poor nutrition may be some of the causes behind the low protein levels in alcoholics. Ethanol consumption slows down the rate of hepatic protein catabolism and changes may be related to the degree of ethanol-induced oxidative stress.

Keywords: Albumin, Alcohol Dependence, Globulin.

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Dr Abhilekh Das

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