Chlorpropamide-alcohol flush: a critical reappraisal

The chlorpropamide alcohol flush.

Many non-insulin dependent diabetics (NIDDs) on the sulphonylurea chlorpropamide experience intense facial flushing after taking alcohol even in small amounts. This chlorpropamide alcohol flush (CPAF) was first recognized within months of the introduction of the drug in the 1950s [ l ] but, although an alcohol flush occasionally occurs with tolbutamide [ 2 , 31, it has not been reported with ot...

Chlorpropamide alcohol flush and circulating met-enkephalin: a positive link.

Chlorpropamide-alcohol flushing may be due to sensitivity to endogenous opiates. To investigate this possibility the plasma met-enkephalin and beta-endorphin responses to sherry with and without chlorpropamide were studied in six patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes and in six normal subjects. After chlorpropamide all patients showed a rise in met-enkephalin concentrations from a basal ...

Blood concentrations of acetaldehyde during chlorpropamide-alcohol flush.

To test the suggestion that chlorpropamide-alcohol flushing (CPAF) resembles the disulfiram effect and might be mediated by acetaldehyde, the initial metabolite of alcohol, blood concentrations of acetaldehyde were measured after a drink of alcohol in controls and diabetics positive and negative for CPAF. The CPAF-positive diabetics had significantly greater blood acetaldehyde concentrations af...

Increase of plasma acetaldehyde. An objective indicator of the chlorpropamide alcohol flush.

Chlorpropamide alcohol flushing (CPAF) in non-insulin-dependent diabetics (NIDDs) has been reported to be associated with a lower tendency to develop late complications. The flush was thought to be mediated by enkephalins and prostaglandins. Early studies could not correlate CPAF to increased levels of acetaldehyde in blood and the flush was not regarded as an antabuse-like reaction. In this st...

Neonatal hypoglycaemia--a critical reappraisal.