Abnormal Metabolite in Alcoholic Subjects

An abnormal diol, 2,3-butanediol has been discovered in the serum of most but not all of 113 chronic alcoholic patients after ethanol ingestion. Gas chromatographic analysis of deproteinized sera revealed a peak coinciding with ethanol in concentration ranging between 3 and 96 micrometers in 78 of 113 unselected patients admitted to an alcohol treatment center. Of the 78 patients with measurable blood ethanol on admission, 69 (88%) had a peak on gas chromatography coinciding with 2,3-butanediol in concentration ranging from 0.011-0.841 micrometers. No butanediol was found in the blood of the other 9 (12%) despite ethanol concentrations in the blood ranging from 5 to 85 micrometers. Similar analyses of sera from 54 controls, patients hospitalized with a variety of medical diagnoses other than alcoholism and including 8 with diabetes mellitus, disclosed no measurable blood ethanol and no 2,3-butanediol except that 2 control sera showed a very small peak coinciding with 2,3-butanediol near the lower limit of detection, 0.01 micrometers. Twenty-two (20%) of the 113 alcoholic patients had been independently diagnosed as manic depressive depressives. The blood of all but one contained 2,3-butanediol in concentrations ranging from 0.013 to 0.140 micrometers. (Author)