REALATIONSHIP OF SERUM LEVEL AND EFFECT OF LOW DOSE ZINC SUPPLEMENTATION ON SEVERITY OF LIVER CELL FAILURE IN PATIENTS WITH LIVER CIRRHOSIS.

Aim: the study aimed to determine the relationship between serum zinc level and severity of liver cell failure and the effect of low dose zinc supplementation on the severity of liver cell failure. Patients/methods: the present study was conducted in the period extending from June 2014 to June2015 at BenhaUniversity Hospitals. the study included 60 patients with chronic liver disease in addition to 30 healthy volunteers who served as controls. On all patients were done complete blood count, biochemical liver function tests (ALT, AST, ALP, serum bilirubin, serum albumin, INR) using spectrophotometric assays, blood urea and serum creatinine using spectrophotometric assays, serum zinc level using colorimetric assay and liver biopsy according to the guidelines recommendations. Every patient received 30mg of Zinc/day for one month and all patients were followed up for one month after Zinc supplementation using the same laboratory parameters mentioned above. The mean age of the patients was 51.0+5.6, while mean age of controls was 49.4+6.4. Results: patients had significantly impaired liver functions (ALT, AST, ALP, albumin, bilirubin and INR) when compared with controls. In addition patients had lower WBCs count, RBCs count, platelet count and lower hemoglobin level when compared with controls. Furthermore, zinc levels are significantly lower in patients when compared with controls. Zinc supplementation resulted in significant improvement of serum ALT, AST, albumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, INR and Child Pugh Score. Conclusion: reduction in Zinc level was observed in patient with liver disease Zinc supplementation resulted in raised serum Zinc level and improvement of liver functions.