[Gamma-glutamyltransferase and alkaline phosphatase in the serum and saliva of patients with hepatic tumors and hepatic cirrhosis].

The authors have previously described the presence of gammaglutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase in the saliva of healthy individuals and of patients with hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases. The authors show in this work the values of said enzymes in the blood serum and saliva of 23 cases of liver cirrhosis and 17 patients with liver tumors. Both enzymes increase significantly in the serum of liver tumor patients with respect to the amounts found in liver cirrhosis patients (p less than 0.005). Alkaline phosphatase increased significantly in the saliva of patients with liver cirrhosis (p less than 0.005), where as no differences were found between the two groups of patients with liver cirrhosis (p less than 0.005), where as no differences were found between the two groups of patients for the salivary gamma-glutamyl transferase. The determination of seric alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transferase, and of salivary alkaline phosphatase may be useful for the differential diagnosis between liver cirrhosis and liver tumor.