Biochemical abnormalities of the serum in anorexia nervosa

Biochemical analyses of sera from 27 patients with anorexia nervosa were performed and compared with those of normal female volunteers and other anorectic groups including patients who had undergone digestive tract surgery and patients with malignancies. There were significant increases in gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, lactate dehydrogenase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, cholesterol, and amylase activity and significant decreases in total serum protein, blood sugar, albumin, globulins, and cholinesterase in anorexia nervosa patients compared with normal control subjects. At discharge, these values slightly improved. Similar alterations were also observed in two other anorectic groups. Compared with anorexia nervosa patients, the two other anorectic groups showed a severe reduction in the albumin level and increase in the globulin level. In two other anorectic groups cholesterol levels were lower, and in the malignancy group cholinesterase level was lower than in the anorexia nervosa patients. In anorexia nervosa patients, biochemical abnormalities in the serum were more frequent in total serum protein (93%), blood sugar (85%), and globulins (78%) than in other serum factors, such as blood urea nitrogen (15%), uric acid (15%), and alkaline phosphatase (7%). These results suggest that detection of biochemical abnormalities in the above-mentioned serum factors in routine analyses would be valuable in making an early diagnosis of anorexia nervosa from various anorectic disorders.