Serum concentration of selected trace elements and Gammaglutamyltransferase in alcoholic liver disease

Abstract

Introduction: In South East Asia, India has turn out to be one of the major producers of alcohol. Hepatic manifestation of alcohol includes fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and chronic hepatitis with hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis. Objective: The main aim of our study was to determine the concentrations of some important physiological metal ions and liver enzyme activity in chronic alcoholics. Materials & Methods: This was a case control study. The study involved 30 male patients of Alcoholic liver diseases (ALDs) from outpatient and inpatients department of Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Karimnagar as cases and 30 age-matched healthy male relatives of patients with no chronic illness as control group. AST, ALT, bilirubin, gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and serum zinc, magnesium and copper of cases and controls were estimated compared. Results: In the current study we found that serum bilirubin levels, serum AST, ALT, GGT rose significantly in cases (P<0.001) when compared to controls. The cases have significantly lower level of serum Zinc and Magnesium when compared to healthy normal controls (P<0.0001). There is a significant elevation of serum copper levels in cases when compared to the healthy controls (P<0.001). Conclusion: Except copper both serum zinc and magnesium levels significantly reduced in ALD patients. The liver enzymes elevated in the chronic alcoholics denoting hepatic impairment in the cases. The estimation of the enzymes and cations helps in early diagnosis and also as prognostic marker for treatment in ALD patients

Keywords

• fibrosis
• cirrhosis
• gamma glutamyl tranferase
• ald