A Study to Assess, the Extent of Autonomic Dysfunction Based on the Standard Cardiovascular Tests in Different Grades of Alcoholics

Aim: Autonomic system is the one which extensively supplies the inner organs. Much attention is not given to it clinically and there are few tests available to assess it. The tests which are available are less used in patients to assess the autonomic function. Alcoholism is a factor which affects most of the system in the human body. Its effect on autonomic nervous system is extensive. As a result of this autonomic failure there would be damage to multiple systems.

Study design: In this study the effect of alcoholism in a group of people grading them as social drinkers, chronic alcoholics and alcoholic cirrhotics have been done using the seven standard autonomic function tests. The extent of autonomic damage in all these different groups was done. The results were compared against a group of controls.

Results: There was autonomic damage observed in all three groups with a distribution of 50% mild damage and 30% of moderate damage in social drinkers. A 20% of severe damage (combined damage) in chronic alcoholics and 90% of severe damage in alcoholic cirrhotics were obtained. A significant difference was observed between all groups of alcoholics and the controls (p< 0.01)

Conclusion: The extent of autonomic damage seems to be underestimated in alcoholics. More care should be given to high social drinkers as they too exhibited autonomic damage. Also these simple tests should be performed as a routine on all alcoholics for an early detection of the situation.