The Association between Blood Selenium Level and the Gastric Diseases

Lee, Jong Young; Kim, Doohie; Park, Seoung Kook

Abstract

To reveal the association between blood selenium level and the gastric diseases, 180 persons received the gastrofiberscopic examination at the outpatients department of the two university hospitals from July to September 1987, after the exclusion of the persons having the esophageal varix, were randomly selected. Their general characteristics such as age, sex and educational level and so on, were investigated. Five microliter venous blood was collected from each subjects and stored at 0 degrees C in heparinized vaccum tube. The blood selenium level was measured by the flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In the procedure of data analysis, five subjects having benign tumor and anomaly of the stomach, were also excluded. The mean blood selenium levels of the 155.5 microgram/l among gastritis cases, the 154.8 microgram/l gastric ulcer and the 133.0 microgram/l gastric malignancy were significantly lower(p<0.05) than that of the 173.3 microgram/l among normal controls. In men the mean blood selenium levels among gastritis, gastric ulcer and gastric malignancy cases were significantly lower(p<0.05) than that among normal controls. In females, the mean blood selenium levels among gastritis and gastric maligancy cases were significantly lower(P<0.05) than that among normal controls(169.7 microgram/l), buy that among gastric ulcer cases(177.7 microgram/l) was not significantly higher. In the logistic analysis, coefficient of the blood selenium level was -0.0436(p<0.05 ; odds ratio 0.957) for gastritis, -0.0197(p=0.17 ; 0.981) for gastric ulcer, -0.4876(p<0.05 ; 0.614) for gastric malignancy and -0.0411(p<0.05 ; 0.960) for gastric diseases including the gastritis, the gastric ulcer and the gastric malignancy. These data support the hypothesis that the gastric diseases are to be associated with the low selenium level but, for the gastric ulcer, the further research is recommended.