Demographic, clinical characteristics and laboratory results of the study cohort
| Variables | Healthy/non-excessive drinkers (n=45) | Alcoholics with or without recent drinking (n=300) | p Value* | Alcoholics—stratified by recent drinking status | p Value† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics without recent drinking‡ (n=160) | Alcoholics with recent drinking§ (n=140) | |||||
| Age (years) | 31±7 | 37.5±0.6 | 0.0001 | 36±11 | 39±11 | 0.001 |
| Gender—male (n, %) | 30 (67) | 223 (74.3) | 0.28 | 118 (74) | 105 (75) | 0.53 |
| Race (white, %) | 39 (87) | 249 (83) | 0.95 | 131 (82) | 118 (84) | 0.39 |
| Height (cm) | 175.6±10.2 | 175.9±0.5 | 0.83 | 175.3±8.9 | 176.6±9.1 | 0.44 |
| Weight (kg) | 87.1±16.3 | 86.8±1.0 | 0.94 | 86.5±19.1 | 87.2±16.1 | 0.94 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 28.1±3.8 | 28.1±0.3 | 0.96 | 28.1±5.8 | 28.0±5.1 | 0.98 |
| Total drinks in the last 30 days | 4.0±5.4 | 196.8±10.5 | 0.0001 | 94.2±94.9 | 314.0±188.2 | 0.001 |
| Number of days drinking out of 30 days | 2.5±3.5 | 16.8±0.5 | 0.0001 | 10.3±5.6 | 24.3±2.8 | 0.001 |
| Total bilirubin (mg/dL) | 0.5±0.2 | 0.7±0.02 | 0.002 | 0.6±0.3 | 0.8±0.5 | 0.001 |
| AST (U/L) | 18.4±7.0 | 31.9±1.6 | 0.001 | 28.4±21.4 | 36.0±33.6 | 0.001 |
| ALT (U/L) | 33.4±5.4 | 46.6±1.4 | 0.001 | 44.8±21.9 | 48.7±28.4 | 0.01 |
| Albumin (g/dL) | 4.2±0.3 | 3.8±0.02 | 0.0001 | 3.9±0.4 | 3.6±0.4 | 0.001 |
| Total protein (g/dL) | 7.8±0.5 | 7.1±0.2 | 0.17 | 7.0±0.8 | 7.1±5.4 | 0.39 |
| Haemoglobin (g/dL) | 14.4±1.5 | 13.9±0.09 | 0.08 | 14.0±1.6 | 13.8±1.6 | 0.13 |
| Platelet counts (×103/µL) | 237±64.6 | 231.1±4.3 | 0.58 | 237±76.1 | 223.1±70.6 | 0.18 |
| White blood cell counts (WBC, ×103/µL) | 6.6±1.5 | 7.0±0.12 | 0.25 | 6.7±1.7 | 7.3±2.3 | 0.04 |
| Percentage of neutrophils to WBC | 60.7±7.9 | 72.7±0.78 | 0.0001 | 67.0±13.7 | 80.0±9.8 | 0.0001 |
| Percentage of monocytes to WBC | 6.7±2.0 | 9.2±0.18 | 0.0001 | 8.8±3.1 | 9.7±3.0 | 0.0001 |
| Percentage of lymphocytes to WBC | 29.6±7.1 | 15.2±0.73 | 0.0001 | 20.6±12.9 | 9.3±9.2 | 0.0001 |
| Neutrophil counts (×103/µL) | 3.9±0.9 | 5.1±0.11 | 0.0001 | 4.5±1.4 | 5.7±1.6 | 0.0001 |
| Monocyte counts (×103/µL) | 0.4±0.1 | 0.6±0.01 | 0.0001 | 0.6±0.2 | 0.7±0.3 | 0.0001 |
| Lymphocyte counts (×103/µL) | 1.9±0.6 | 1.2±0.05 | 0.0001 | 1.7±0.7 | 0.6±0.6 | 0.0001 |
Data are presented as mean±SD. *p Value in this column was obtained from t-test analysing two groups of healthy controls and total alcoholics.
†p Value in this column was obtained from analysis of variance test analysing three groups of healthy controls, alcoholics with or without recent excessive drinking.
‡Excessive drinkers with last drink ≥10 days before the enrolment.
§Excessive drinkers with last drinks within 10 days before the enrolment.
BMI, body mass index; WBC, white blood cell.