Evaluation of Serum Zinc Status and Serum Alkaline Phosphatase Activity in Alcoholic Liver Disease Patients - A Hospital Based Study from Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

BACKGROUND Alcoholism remains to be the major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Consuming alcohol is the potent etiological factor for the development of alcoholic liver diseases (ALD), ranging from fatty liver to hepatocellular carcinoma with varying rates of development in both genders depending on the quality, quantity, and duration of the drink. Zinc deficiency has been documented with the progression of alcoholic liver disease. It is also a well-known fact that zinc is a co-factor for enzyme alkaline phosphatase. This study aims to assess the zinc status and alkaline phosphatase activity in patients with various stages of alcoholic liver disease, correlate zinc with alkaline phosphatase activity, albumin, gamma glutamyl transferase activity, MELD score and duration of alcohol intake and analysing the need for evaluating zinc in these patients. METHODS This comparative observational study involves group I healthy controls and group II patients diagnosed to have ethanol related decompensated liver disease with or without portal hypertension for more than three years from the Department of Medical Gastroenterology, Government Medical College Hospital. 5 ml of venous blood in fasting state was collected from both groups and assayed for serum zinc, and serum alkaline phosphatase activity. The data was statistically analysed. RESULTS The study results demonstrate that higher percentage of patients with alcoholic liver disease have low serum zinc levels than healthy controls. Zinc when compared with variables like serum albumin, duration of alcohol intake, MELD score, serum gamma glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase in the case and control groups were found to be statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS There is decrease in serum zinc level and increased alkaline phosphatase activity in patients with alcoholic liver disease. The statistically significant data is a strong rationale for evaluating the zinc status and thereby supplementing zinc to patients with alcoholic liver disease. KEYWORDS Alcoholic Liver Disease, Zinc, Alkaline Phosphatase, MELD Score