Selenium status in patients with liver cirrhosis and alcoholism.

1. Selenium status and blood levels of other nutrients related to lipid peroxidation were studied in patients with advanced alcoholic liver cirrhosis, in male alcoholics who had been abstinent for at least 1 month and in healthy control subjects. 2. Plasma Se was decreased in alcoholic cirrhosis but not among alcoholics in abstinence. Platelet glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9; GSH-Px) activity was decreased in cirrhotic patients, whereas GSH-Px in blood and plasma was the same as in controls for both groups of patients. 3. Plasma retinol and plasma alpha-tocopherol were decreased in alcoholic cirrhosis, whereas plasma ascorbic acid was the same in all groups. 4. The decreases in platelet GSH-Px, plasma Se and alpha-tocopherol indicate a deranged antioxidant defence in patients with advanced alcoholic cirrhosis, but the levels of these and other nutrients were generally not correlated to common clinical chemical indicators of liver disease.