[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. Marked hepatic cell insufficiency in HC patients warrants disappearance of 3-4 CE isoforms. The presence of only one or two of them suggests a lethal outcome. In chronic AN four or less CE isoforms predict development of HC.