[Clinical value of measuring the activity of serum cholinesterase and its isoenzyme in chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis].

Examination was performed of 48 chronic sufferers with persistent hepatitis (PH), 70 with active hepatitis (AH) and 179 with hepatic cirrhosis (HC) by activity of cholinesterase (CE). Lowering of total CE activity proportional to hepatic cellular insufficiency was seen in decompensated HC and chronic AN. CE isoforms (7 in healthy subjects) furnished additional information about its activity.

[Change in zinc metabolism in malignant neoplasms].

Changes in the zinc metabolism indexes (levels in blood serum, leukocytes, erythrocytes, diurnal urine and liver tissue) were assayed colorimetrically in 116 patients (52 with primary and metastatic cancer of liver, 20 with neoplasms of extrahepatic localizations and 44 with acute and chronic leukemia). Normal or elevated concentration of zinc in blood serum identifiable only in cases of primary cancer of the liver (matched by a decrease in blood serum zinc level in the remaining cases) provides a differential diagnosis sign suggesting transformation of hepatocirrhosis into primary cancer of the liver. Zinc levels in blood serum and leukocytes are relatively low in cases of different types and sites of tumors, this being characteristic of the initial stages of the disease.

[Effectiveness of treating chronic cholecystitis by prodigiozain electrophoresis].

136 patients suffering from chronic cholecystitis were treated in the phase of exacerbation with antibiotics in combination with prodigiosan. It was found that inclusion of prodigiosan into the therapeutic complex had a positive effect on the immediate and late results of the treatment. Since intramuscular administration of prodigiosan was accompanied by a number of side effects, a method of the drug administration by means of electrophoresis on the area of the bile bladder was tested.