ABSTRACT
A new prognostic criterion was developed to evaluate the severity of different forms of viral hepatitis, by studying zinc metabolism. In patients with viral hepatitis, zinc metabolic disturbances were ascertained to occur concurrently with pigment, protein, and carbohydrate metabolic disturbances, an increase in the activity of some serum enzymes (glutamine alkaline transferase, glutamine pyruvate transferase, alanine aminotransferase), and a reduction in hepatic antitoxic function. The indicator of normalization of zinc metabolism may be an additional prognostic criterion for evaluating the full recovery of a patient. The studied criterion enables the chronic pattern of viral hepatitis to be predicted in convalescents after their discharge from hospital.
