Cerebrovascular alteration in alcoholic patients

Abstract

For most people who drink alcohol, the substance is viewed as a pleasant accompaniment to social activities. Moderate alcohol use (in general, two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people) is not harmful and protects against arteriosclerosis. However, uncontrolled alcohol consumption causes mental and somatic problems 1. Psychological and somatic variables were measured to establish possible correlations with cerebrovascular alterations due to alcoholism. Cerebrovascular alteration was estimated by rheoencepholography (REG) 2, a noninvasive bio-impedance technique acknowledged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a tool for estimating cerebral blood flow 3. Jenkner 4 established the arteriosclerotic standard of REG. Our hypothesis was that uncontrolled alcohol consumption may cause cerebrovascular damage detectable by REG. The test subjects were 48 alcoholic patients in Hungary; the control group consisted of 12 drug-addicted and depressed patients in Hungary and 13 healthy male subjects in the United States. Subjects were subdivided into young and older subgroups (below and above 40 years). A REG anacrotic time above 180 ms was considered pathological. Four additional subgroups were formed according to smoking habits and average daily alcohol dose. Compared to alcoholic subjects, drug-addicted patients showed significantly shorter REG anacrotic time. Twelve alcoholics showed a pathological REG value. ANOVA showed that daily alcohol consumption and smoking were significantly higher in alcoholics than in drug patients or patients with depression. Factor analysis of variables showed gender differences. Three factors were found both for males (cumulative%= 64.86) and females (75.56): factor 1 - age and REG anacrotic time (males) and age with vegetative indexes (females); factor 2 - daily alcohol and cigarette consumption for both genders; factor 3 - REG and vegetative index (males). Longer REG anacrotic time was correlated with higher daily alcohol consumption (r = 0.683, p = 0.007) in a subgroup (n = 12). For all subjects, physiological cerebrovascular aging was expected to show an identical slope with age. However, in the Hungarian alcoholic group, the sharper REG slope: 36.68 vs. age: 0.56 (ratio: 64.39) reflected the pathological impact of alcohol abuse. The U.S. control sample showed a nearly identical slope for both REG (1.79) and age (3.45; ratio: 0.52). The correlation of increased REG and daily alcohol consumption supports the accelerated cerebrovascular aging (arteriosclerosis) of the alcoholic subjects. Further study will be performed to exclude greater Hungarian cardiovascular risk factors, which may influence the increased REG anacrotic time.