What does it mean when a doctor tells you your blood test is consistent with someone who drinks alcohol?

W.H.

Several blood tests may be abnormal in an alcoholic patient. I am not sure which one you may be referring to, but I will outline some of the possibilities. Often, alcoholics are anemic as a result of low intakes of folic acid. This type of anemia shows up as large, red blood cells, and is usually detected in lab work to determine blood counts.

Alcohol also affects the liver, and various blood tests to gauge liver function may be abnormal. Liver enzymes (AST and ALT) are increased in the blood in a certain proportion to one another in alcoholic liver disease. The typical suggestive ratio is a level of AST that is twice the level of ALT. Another enzyme, GGT, may be high in the blood of someone who has been drinking recently.

In alcoholic patients with severe liver disease, as well as in other patients with liver disease, blood clotting factor levels may be low and bilirubin levels may be high. Counts of platelets (also involved in blood clotting) can also be low in these patients.

Although the above tests are not diagnostic of alcoholism on their own, they are often used to confirm a suspicion of alcohol abuse or its consequences in certain patients who may not admit to alcohol abuse.