Plasma and urinary selenium in Saudi Arabian patients with dilated cardiomyopathy

We measured selenium (Se) levels in the urine and blood plasma samples of 7 2 Saudi Arabian patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and 70 control s ubjects of the same origin. To correct for differences in the hydration sta te of the subjects, the selenium concentration for each urine sample was no rmalized by dividing it by the concentration of creatinine (CREAT) in the s ame sample. The median (and range) of the values found for the concentratio n of Se in plasma, urine, and normalized concentration in urine for the con trol subjects was 1.306 (0.66-2.50) mu M, 0.478 (0.05-2.00) mu M, and 56.7 (10.6-426.5) mu M Se/M GREAT, respectively, whereas, for the patients, it w as 1.246 (0.53-2.45) mu M, 0.39 (0.05-1.90) mu M, and 75.1 (4.9-656.2) mu M Se/M GREAT, respectively. Additionally, the patients were separated into t hree subgroups according to the severity of their disease state as judged b y NYHA procedure, and were then compared to the control group. Only group 4 (the most severe state of the disease) had a significantly lower concentra tion of urinary Se than the control group. However, the difference became n onsignificant when normalized for GREAT levels. There was no significant di fference in the plasma Selevels between the controls and any of the patient groups. As the plasma Se in the control group and in the DCM patients both fell on the low end of the "normal" range, with the patients being margina lly lower than the controls, there is no firm evidence from this study to s uggest that Se is related to the high incidence rate of DCM found in Saudi Arabia.