A method for determining the amount of carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) in blood serum involves saturating a sample of the blood serum with iron to provide isoforms of transferrin, separating the isoforms of transferrin from other serum proteins in the sample, and developing a chromatogram which relates the separated isoforms with different pI values. The separation step is preferably carried out in an ion exchange column using a salt gradient and the chromatogram is preferably developed using a high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). The method is particularly useful for identifying heavy alcohol consumption in a person, which is related to isoforms of transferrin having pI values of 5.9 and 5.7.
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