ABSTRACT
Background: The damage that long-term alcohol abuse can do to the hematologic profile, is well documented; but, whether moderate alcohol intake for a short duration; alters hematologic profile or not, has not been established. Objective: In the present study, we examined hematologic profile in a group of short-term moderate alcohol drinkers and age and sex matched controls. Materials and Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in one of the tertiary care hospital. We recruited thirty young (20-40 years) men with history of daily 2 to 3 units of alcohol intake/day for the past 1 to 3 years duration. Another thirty age matched men, who were alcohol abstainers, served as controls. Two ml of blood was collected from anterior cubital vein after 12 hours of fasting. Hematological parameters were measured by using KX-21 Sysmex Automated Hematology Analyzer. Data were presented as means ± SD, and analysed using the one tailed unpaired (equal variance) ‘t’ test. The level of significance was taken at P values < 0.05. Results: We observed that the MCV value was significantly higher and platelet count was significantly lower in the moderate drinkers as compared to controls. Conclusion: Moderate alcohol intake for even a short duration has deleterious effects on hematologic profile in Indian men.