Chaitali Maitra1 and Arjun Maitra
Present study is done to establish the hypothesis that alcohol does cause intravascular hemolysis by comparing serum concentration of G6PD in alcoholic patients in comparison to normal healthy control. In this case control & cross sectional study patients were selected from outpatient department of Medicine & Psychiatry, Chirayu Medical College& Hospital, India. Patients between 25—50 yrs of age with a history of drinking alcohol more than 80gms per day for more than 5 years were taken for the study. Serum G6PD concentration is measured by using Method proposed by Kornberg and Horecker (1955) , along with RBC count and indirect bilirubin estimation. It was observed that G6PD activity in serum is in significant amount among the alcoholics. The concentration of serum G6PD increases significantly (3.02 ± 65 IU/ml) along with the decrease in RBC count. Indirect bilirubin (unconjugated bilirubin) was found to be very significantly high (7.536 ±2.28mg/dL) along with decrement in the hemoglobin concentration (12.04 ± 0.60 gm/dl) and RBC count. Serum G6PD shows a negative correlation (r = - 0.70). RBC count and indirect bilirubin was concentration show a moderate negative correlation (r= - 0.55). From the above result we conclude that alcohol does cause intravascular hemolysis and Serum G6PD level can be considered as a marker for intravascular hemolysis.