[Serum levels of pseudocholinesterase in alcoholic cirrhosis patients. Correlation with the extent of anatomo-functional damage. Unfavorable prognostic index].

Following an introduction on the question of pseudocholinesterase (CHE) in cirrhosis of the liver and acute and chronic hepatopathy, a personal study of 35 chronic cases at various stages of the disease is reported. The patients were submitted to the usual haematochemical liver function tests as well as to liver needle biopsy with anatomo-functional staging of the liver trouble, which was largely due to alcohol poisoning. The CHE level in these patients was monitored until death. On the basis of the results, measurement of CHE is identified as an index not only of liver function (this is of course well known) but of prognosis infausta, there being a confirmed correlation between survival and CHE serum level.