Objectives: To investigate the relationship between serum paraoxonase-1 and liver damage in chronic alcoholic patients. To assess the diagnostic accuracy of paraoxonase-1 plus standard biochemical tests in the assessment of liver damage in alcoholics.
Design and methods: We studied 328 chronic alcoholics and 368 healthy individuals.
Results: Paraoxonase-1 activity was decreased and the concentration was increased in alcoholics (P<0.001). The enzyme activity was correlated with albumin (r=0.45; P<0.001) and prothrombin time (r=0.49; P<0.001). Addition of paraoxonase-1 activity measurement to a battery of biochemical tests increased the sensitivity in differentiating between patients and controls up to 96.6% but did not improve the sensitivity in differentiating between subgroups of alcoholics.
Conclusions: Paraoxonase-1 was related to the severity of alcoholic liver disease. Its measurement was useful in discriminating between patients and healthy subjects, but did not add any valuable information in subgroups of alcoholics.