Use of the screening suggested by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and of a newly derived tool for the detection of unhealthy alcohol drinkers among surgical patients.

OBJECTIVE: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has developed a two-question tool for the detection of unhealthy drinking (NIAAA-2Q) that investigates excessive alcohol consumption per single occasion. NIAAA-2Q can be commuted into a four-question tool (NIAAA-4Q) by the addition of two questions aimed at investigating excessive weekly alcohol intake. NIAAA-2Q and NIAAA-4Q may prove useful in busy settings such as an anesthesiological environment. However, to date, no study has evaluated their efficacy in a surgical setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of NIAAA-2Q and NIAAA-4Q in detecting unhealthy drinking among surgical patients using the more complex Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) comprising 10 questions as the criterion method. METHOD: NIAAA-4Q and AUDIT were administered to 200 surgical patients by three anesthetists. RESULTS: A total of 23.5%, 12.5%, and 28.5% surgical patients were unhealthy drinkers according to AUDIT, NIAAA-2Q, and NIAAA-4Q, respectively. NIAAA-2Q negative and positive predictive values were 0.78 and 0.36, respectively, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.80 and 0.90, respectively. NIAAA-4Q negative and positive predictive values were 0.93 and 0.65, respectively, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 6.00 and 0.24, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: NIAAA-4Q demonstrated a better satisfactory agreement than NIAAA-2Q with AUDIT in detecting unhealthy alcohol drinking among surgical patients. These results suggest that the detection of unhealthy alcohol drinking may be increased by the administration of questions aimed at assessing the weekly average of alcohol intake. The modest time required for NIAAA-4Q administration is a major advantage in clinical practice with respect to AUDIT. Further research will compare NIAAA-2Q and NIAAA-4Q with other brief alcohol screening tests.

Physiological response to lipid peroxidation in ischemia and reperfusion during carotid endarterectomy.

BACKGROUND: In this study we aimed to assess lipid peroxidation during carotid endarterectomy by the formation of PUFA hydroperoxides (PUFAHP) and isoprostanes (IP) and concomitant peroxisomal beta-oxidation as a physiological mechanism to limit their concentration. Two markers of peroxisomal beta oxidation have been evaluated, formation of 2,3 dinor from IP and conjugated esadecadienoic acid (CD 16:2) from peroxisomal beta-oxidation of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), an unusual fatty acid present in small concentration in our diet and preferentially beta-oxidised in peroxisomes.The study was conducted on 30 patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. Blood samplings were performed before, during endarterectomy in the "ischemic phase", and 30 seconds, 30 minutes and 2 hours after reperfusion. RESULTS: The results showed that PUFAHP increased significantly after 30 min of reperfusion in patients with controlateral stenosis > 50%, and steeply decreased after 2 hour of reperfusion. Interestingly, IP increased in a similar fashion of PUFAHP but never significantly. Both ratios CD16:2/CLA and DIN/IP also increased significantly after 30 min of reperfusion to decrease thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that lipid peroxidation takes place only in patients with high controlateral stenosis and within 2 hours occurs a physiological response aimed to decrease IP and PUFAHP by increasing their catabolism in peroxisomes.

Pain biomarkers.

The value of biomarkers in aiding early diagnosis of disease and predicting response to pharmacologic interventions is well known. The idea that biomarkers may also be used to identify and quantify pain has been investigated in preclinical and clinical studies. Findings from a preclinical study show that inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain have different biomarkers. Further investigations provided mixed results, on the one hand, cystatin C levels in cerebrospinal fluid appear to be a predictive marker for postherpetic neuralgia in patients with varicella-zoster virus, and a pain marker in women experiencing labour pain, but is not correlated with pain duration or intensity. Investigations into potential biomarkers for chest pain showed that cardiac markers used to aid in diagnosis and prognosis of cardiac disease correlate with tissue damage rather than with pain. Further studies are needed to gain insights into biomarkers for pain to enhance pain management practices.