Identification of health damage due to alcohol abuse; importance of alterations in cardiac function and blood chemistries.

ABSTRACT

Like in any other disease, diagnosis of health damage caused by alcohol abuse can be established all the easier and sooner, the more results of medical examinations are taken into consideration simultaneously. Evidence is presented that a larger proportion (96.4%) of alcoholics suffer from compromised cardiac function (the classification function uses 6 variables out of the measured 21 than from disorders of liver function and the metabolism (87.7%) (the classification function uses 12 variables out of the 21). Taking into consideration all the 41 variables (using only 12) the power of discrimination is 99.2% (discriminant analysis).