Adaptation of methods for glutamate dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase activities to a centrifugal analyser: assessment of their clinical use in anoxic states of the liver.

Sensitive, precise, and rapid methods for the measurement of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) were developed on the Cobas Bio centrifugal analyser. The optimal pH for ADH in caucasians was 9.8. Non-linearity of ADH enzyme activity was observed when samples were diluted in saline; linearity was restored when inactivated serum was used as diluent. ADH was shown to be a sensitive index of liver anoxia due to cardiorespiratory disturbance (clinical sensitivity 90%) and generalised anoxia. GDH exhibited sensitivity equal to that of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) but was inferior to gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in the detection of specific liver disease. Both ADH and GDH were sensitive indicators of alcoholic liver disease.