Alcohol is consumed by the majority of the adult population. Identification of hazardous drinking, however, is often difficult, since established markers of alcohol consumption lack of sensitivity and specificity for hazardous drinking. It was therefore the aim to investigate established markers for alcohol consumption in healthy blood donors and correlate them with drinking habits and other factors. Non-fasting blood samples were drawn from healthy blood donors before a regular blood donation. In addition, a questionnaire on drinking habits (frequency of standard drinks, assigned to 5 categories), weight and height for calculation of body mass index (BMI), use of oral contraceptives and age was completed anonymously by the blood donors. The activity of gamma-glutamyltranspepdidase in serum (S-GGT) was measured, and the concentration of carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1). 85 women and 163 men aged between 18 and 63 years took part in the study. There were 46 abstainers (17.8%), 76 (29.3%) and 88 (34%) declared to consume alcohol once per week or twice per week, respectively, while 23 (9%) declared to consume one drink of alcohol per day and 16 (6%) declared to consume more than one drink per day. The S-GGT increased with increasing amounts of alcohol consumed (P<0.01). The same was observed for apoA1, in contrast toCDTwhichwas not associated withdrinking categories. Significant associations were also observed between S-GGT and the BMI (r=0.30, P<0.001). There was a weak association between apoA1 and GGT (r=-0.13, P<0.05), but not among S-GGT and CDT or apoA1 and CDT. Established markers of alcohol consumption are only weakly related to self-reported frequency of alcohol consumption and are also significantly influenced by the BMI.

        Klíčová slova: blood donors, alcohol consumption.