RESEARCH Vaswani, Prasad and Kapur fragments indicated the presence of wild-type Glu and mutant Lys alleles, respectively for the ALDH2 SNP. Genotyping for approximately 10 per cent of the samples was repeated at random for quality control, and complete agreement was found. Statistical analysis Comparison of all clinical variables between subjects with different genotypic proﬁles for ADH1B and ALDH2 gene polymorphisms were carried out using the t-test or Mann Whitney’s U test, as appro- priate; p values ,0.05 were considered signiﬁcant. Results The clinical details of the study population are pre- sented in Table 1. The population was divided into Table 1. Clinical details of the study population three groups based on patients’ genotypic proﬁle for ALDH2 (Glu487Lys) gene polymorphism, and the distribution of clinical variables was evaluated. ADH1B gene polymorphism was found to be largely monomorphic, with a minor allele fre- quency (ADH1B*2) of 0.0014. For the ALDH2 Glu487Lys SNP, the genotypic frequencies were 0.73 (2*1/*1), 0.16 (2*1/*2) and 0.11 (2*2/*2), with a minor allele frequency (ALDH2*2) of 0.19. The signiﬁcance of associ- ation of various clinical parameters with ALDH2 polymorphism is included in Table 1. About 80 per cent of subjects with the ALDH 2*1/*2 genotype, and 38 per cent with the ALDH2*1/*1 genotype reported a history of severe alcohol withdrawal (delirium) during their alcohol drinking years. About 39 per cent of those Bilirubin total (mg%) 4.65 + 5.33 4.09 + 0.49 aSigniﬁcant at p , 0.05. SGOT, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase; SGPT, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase 216 # HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1479–7364. HUMAN GENOMICS. VOL 3. NO. 3. 213–220 APRIL 2009 Population characteristic Quantity of alcohol consumed (g/day) Age at first use of alcohol (years) Duration of alcohol use (years) Duration of dependence (years) Age at onset of dependence (years) Duration of alcohol use prior to development of dependence (years) SGOT (IU) SGPT (IU) Total protein (g%) Albumin (g%) Mean + SD (n 5 174) 21.2 + 5.89 14.8 + 9.36 7.53 + 7.19 25.9 + 8.17 7.3 + 5.99 58.38 + 63.92 47.23 + 53.09 0.62 + 0.16 6.9 + 0.71 ALDH2 (Glu487Lys) genotype *1/*1 (n 5 128) 200 – 400 *1/*2 (n 5 27) 130 – 200 20.27 + 6.54 20.14 + 6.12 23.87 + 3.833 17.00 + 12.11 12.42 + 3.69 12.75 + 6.11 10.33 + 8.44 22.33 + 4.70 6.67 + 6.99 66.63 + 75.51 54.04 + 65.60 0.59 + 0.16 6.88 + 0.73 6.07 + 5.23 26.5 + 8.27 6.36 + 3.17 56.93 + 53.38 42.18 + 30.24 0.64 + 0.08 6.84 + 0.84 6.88 + 11.78 *2/*2 (n 5 19) 30 – 50 3.56 + 3.31 32.06 + 10.12 9.19 + 6.09 36.12 + 16.72 32.68 + 20.95 0.64 + 0.22 7.08 + 0.51 4.04 + 0.44 p *1/*1 vs. *2/*2 0.067 0.194 ,0.01a ,0.01a 0.33 0.011a 0.041a 0.45 0.20 0.69