Serum glycoproteins in the liver diseases. VIII. Desialylated glycoproteins in the liver cirrhosis.

Serum desialylated glycoprotein livel of cirrhotic patients was determined and a diagnostically significant elevation of these proteins was observed. The level of these patients was usually 2--10 times of that seen in normal subjects and the elevation was signifi-ant (p less than 0.001) when compared to the level in patients with chronic aggressive hepatitis, severe (2B). Serial determinations of these proteins in the cirrhotic patients showed no correlation between them and SGPT as a whole but in several cases in which SGPT fluctuated the former associated with the latter. In patients with decompensated cirrhotic liver these proteins returned nearly to the level of compensated patients when it was improved. The level of these proteins in cirrhotic patients correlated, not always, with serum albumin (r = -0.46, p less than 0.02) and indocyanine green clearance rate (r = -0.73, p less than 0.05), but not with SGPT as well as the other liver function tests.