Prevalence and mortality of heavy drinkers in a general medical hospital unit.

This study was performed in order to analyse the prevalence, clinical characteristics and mortality of heavy drinkers among hospitalized patients during a 2-year period. Chronic excessive alcohol consumption (daily intake >80 g of ethanol for males and >40 g for females) was found in 278 of 2913 hospital admissions and was strongly associated with the male sex (90.69%). Heavy drinkers were significantly younger than other admissions (15 and 10 years for men and women, respectively), but showed similar mortality rates to other admissions, despite a much earlier age at death (19.5 years for men and 22 years for women). There was a trend towards higher mortality rates among severe alcoholic women than severe alcoholic men and non-alcoholic women. Liver cirrhosis was the entity most frequently observed in the heavy drinkers, and was significantly more prevalent in alcoholic women.

Relative and combined effects of ethanol and protein deficiency on some hair trace elements: lack of relationship with body stores.

This study was performed in order to analyze the relative and combined effects of ethanol and protein deficiency on hair copper, zinc, manganese, and iron content in four groups of seven animals each which were pair-fed during 8 wk with (1) a nutritionally adequate diet, (2) a 36% (as energy) ethanol-containing isocaloric diet, (3) a 2% protein, isocaloric diet, and (4) a 36% ethanol, 2% protein isocaloric diet, respectively, following the Lieber-DeCarli model, and to analyze the relationship between hair copper, zinc, manganese, and iron content, and the liver and muscle content of these elements. Although there was a trend to higher levels of all the elements analyzed in the the hair of the low-protein fed animals, differences were statistically significant regarding copper and manganese, effects being solely attributable to the low protein diet, not to ethanol. Moreover, hair copper was significantly, inversely related with final weight and weight loss. There were significant relationship between liver zinc and muscle zinc (r = 0.57, p = 0.002), but not between liver or muscle zinc and hair zinc; no correlations were observed between muscle copper and hair copper, nor between liver manganese and hair manganese. An inverse, statistically significant correlation was observed between liver copper and hair copper (r = -0.39, p < 0.05).