A handheld electronic device with the potential to detect lung cancer biomarkers from exhaled breath.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. It has the lowest 5-year survival rate among the most common cancers and therefore, early diagnosis is critical to improve the survival rate. In this paper, a new handheld electronic device is proposed to detect nine lung cancer biomarkers in the exhaled breath.

Nature and Treatment of Comorbid Alcohol Problems and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Among American Military Personnel and Veterans.

Many service members and veterans seeking treatment for alcohol problems also have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This article considers the effectiveness of treating alcohol problems and PTSD simultaneously. The authors begin by summarizing the extent of excessive alcohol use among military service members and veterans.

Group dynamics challenges: Insights from Biosphere 2 experiments.

Successfully managing group dynamics of small, physically isolated groups is vital for long duration space exploration/habitation and for terrestrial CELSS (Controlled Environmental Life Support System) facilities with human participants. Biosphere 2 had important differences and shares some key commonalities with both Antarctic and space environments. There were a multitude of stress factors during the first two year closure experiment as well as mitigating factors.

Estimating the prevalence of drinking problems among physicians.

Objective: Surveys assessing alcohol use among physicians have most commonly employed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) or the AUDIT-C, the most common short version of the AUDIT. As with other screeners, prevalence estimation is dependent on the accuracy of the test as well as choice of the cutoff value. The aim of the current study is to derive more precise prevalence estimates of alcohol problems in physicians by correcting for false-positive and false-negative results.

Assessing the drinking status of liver transplant patients with alcoholic liver disease.

The accurate assessment of drinking by patients with alcoholic liver disease is important both before and after liver transplantation. Unfortunately, self-reports by these individuals often underestimate their actual alcohol consumption. Several recently developed biochemical measures can provide additional information on a patient's use of alcohol.

The alcohol use disorders identification test: an update of research findings.

Background: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) has been extensively researched to determine its capability to accurately and practically screen for alcohol problems.

Methods: During the 5 years since our previous review of the literature, a large number of additional studies have been published on the AUDIT, abbreviated versions of it, its psychometric properties, and the applicability of the AUDIT for a diverse array of populations. The current article summarizes new findings and integrates them with results of previous research.

Ethyl sulphate: a direct ethanol metabolite reflecting recent alcohol consumption.

Background: Ethyl sulphate (EtS), a direct ethanol metabolite, appears to offer potential as a biomarker for recent alcohol consumption. Although its window of assessment is similar to that of ethyl glucuronide (EtG), there are differences between the two markers in their pathways for formation and degradation.

Aims: (a) To assess the excretion of EtS compared to EtG and ethanol in drinking experiments with healthy volunteers, and (b) to elucidate the possibility of using the two metabolites for monitoring abstinence in substance use disorder patients during rehabilitation treatment.

No significant effect of acute moderate alcohol intake on leptin levels in healthy male volunteers.

As, for ethical reasons, it is difficult to investigate by an experiment the effect of acute intoxication on leptin levels in alcoholics, we tested the hypothesis of lowered levels as an effect of acute ethanol intake in healthy volunteers. The subjects comprised (1) 17 healthy male participants, recruited via newspaper advertisements [age 29+/-3.75 years, body mass index (BMI) 24.

Emerging biomarkers: new directions and clinical applications.

This article summarizes content proceedings of a symposium held at the 2004 Research Society on Alcoholism Scientific Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The chairs were Friedrich M. Wurst and Raye Litten.

Ethyl glucuronide: a biomarker to identify alcohol use by health professionals recovering from substance use disorders.

Aims: Physicians recovering from substance-related disorders are usually allowed to return to practice if they agree to remain abstinent from drugs, including alcohol, and to undergo random urine testing. Over 9000 physicians are currently involved in such monitoring programs in the US. To date, it has been difficult to adequately monitor abstinence from alcohol due to the short half-life of alcohol and no other highly specific marker.

Concentration of fatty acid ethyl esters in hair of alcoholics: comparison to other biological state markers and self reported-ethanol intake.

Aims: In a variety of clinical and forensic situations long term use of alcohol must be monitored. In this project we explore the utility of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) in this regard. Additionally, we propose a cut-off value of FAEE to distinguish teetotallers/moderate/social drinkers from alcoholics or individuals drinking at harmful levels.

Recommendations on use of biomarkers in alcoholism treatment trials.

Background: Biochemical markers of heavy drinking are playing increasingly prominent roles in alcohol treatment efficacy studies, especially in those designed to evaluate medications. Among these roles are serving as inclusion or exclusion criteria for research participants, corroboration of self-report of drinking status, assessment of the safety of the agent being evaluated, and determination of treatment outcome.

Methods: Recent alcohol medication development trials that included biomarker information were reviewed and critiqued from the perspectives of how biomarker measures were used and how findings on them were reported.

Use of biomarkers of heavy drinking in health care practice.

Several biochemical tests are available to screen for heavy drinking in patients. Most of these (e.g.

Simultaneous liquid chromatographic assessment of thiamine, thiamine monophosphate and thiamine diphosphate in human erythrocytes: a study on alcoholics.

An isocratic HPLC procedure for the assessment of thiamine (T), thiamine monophosphate (TMP) and thiamine diphosphate (TDP) in human erythrocytes is described. Several aspects of the procedure make it suitable for both clinical and research purposes: limits of detection and quantification of 1 and 2.5 nmol/l, respectively, recovery of 102% on average (range 93-112%), intra- and inter-day precisions within 5 and 9%, respectively, total elution time 15 min.

Biomarkers as aids to identification of relapse in alcoholic patients.

Since return to drinking is common in patients recovering from alcoholism, recognition of relapse should be an important component of treatment. Recurrent assessment with biochemical measures can provide clinicians with useful information on the drinking status of their patients. This chapter addresses issues surrounding the importance of early detection of relapse, describes biochemical markers that may assist in this, reviews relevant scientific investigations, and offers recommendations to researchers and clinicians.

Assessment of alcoholic patients: advances and future challenges.

Noteworthy advances have been made in methods of assessing patients suffering alcohol problems. More than one hundred measures are now available to assist clinicians and researchers in screening for such problems, diagnosing them, and developing treatment plans individualized according to relevant patient characteristics. This chapter reviews progress in assessment supporting each of these activities and suggests directions for future research.

The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): a review of recent research.

Background: Efficient, inexpensive screening for early stage alcohol problems is important in health care settings. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) has been studied extensively to establish its value in this regard.

Methods: A literature search that used EtOH as a database was conducted to identify studies published on the AUDIT through September 2001.

Using acquired knowledge and new technologies in alcoholism treatment trials.

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium held at the 2001 RSA meeting in Montreal, Canada. The organizer and chair was Barbara A. Flannery and the discussant was Raye Z.

Subtypes of Alcoholics Based on Psychometric Measures.

One approach to subtyping alcoholics is the use of psychometric tests that quantify a person's personality characteristics, psychological characteristics, and intelligence. For example, researchers have used the Personality Research Form, which measures basic personality traits, to establish alcoholism typologies. Other psychometric measures that have been employed in the classification of alcoholics, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, measure the presence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders in the patients.