Blood concentrations of thirteen vitamins in cirrhotic patients

To investigate the nutritional status in the presence of liver disease, blood concentrations of various vitamins were measured in 26 patients with histologically verified cirrhosis and in 45 noncirrhotic patients who served as the controls. Plasma concentrations of vitamin A in cirrhotic patients (16.7 +/- 7.9 micrograms/dl) were lower than in noncirrhotic patients (37.1 +/- 13.1 micrograms/dl), the difference being statistically significant (p less than 0.01). However, the blood concentrations of 12 other vitamins in the cirrhotic patients did not differ significantly from findings in the controls. Serum thyroxine-binding prealbumin and retinol-binding protein (RBP) were also significantly decreased in cirrhotic patients. Elevated vitamin A:RBP molar ratio, mean 1.58, in the cirrhotic patients suggested that the low vitamin A level reflected a low production of RBP in the liver. There were no statistically significant differences in blood levels of 13 vitamins when data on cirrhotic patients, with or without a primary hepatocellular carcinoma, were compared.