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 patient
