SERUM SELENIUM LEVELS IN PATIENTS ON HEMODIALYSIS

Relationship between the low selenium concentration and malignant dise ases has been already described. As the incidence of malignancy in ure mic patients is higher than in other populations, in the present study we have determined the selenium levels in dialysed patients. In order to obtain the normal values for our region, 202 healthy persons were examined. The mean selenium content for this group (66.80 +/- 9.13 mu g/l) is among the lowest in Europe. Selenium was determined also in 16 nephrological patients without signs of renal insufficiency and their mean levels (63.4 +/- 0.7 mu g/l) did not considerably differ when co mpared to the normal values. In 45 patients on maintenance hemodialysi s the level of selenium (56.0 +/- 11.88 mu g/l) was significantly lowe r in comparison with the concentration in normal subjects and nephrolo gical patients. Concluding this study we can confirm that the values o f selenium in dialysed patients are so low that we can recommend the p eroral administration of selenium in cases of the end-stage renal fail ure.