A comparative study of blood retinol and selenium in minor lower urinary lesions. A case control study

A case control study was done at Ain Shams University Hospital. Eligibility criteria were put to select cases from the clinics of urosurgery department and a control group from the clinics of surgery departments. The study was conducted in the period form 1st of February till 1st of June 1992. Both cases and control groups were subjected to an interview questionnaire, clinical examination and laboratory investigation to estimate the serum levels of retinol and selenium. Serum retinol and selenium were significantly lower among cases than among control group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.0001 respectively). Moreover, it was found that cases who lived in lower Egypt, belonged to lower socioeconomic class, smoked cigarettes and with current urinary tract infections had mean value of serum retinol significantly lower than the control group (p < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the mean blood selenium between cases and control groups who lived in Cairo (p < 0.001).