| Summary: | We sought to examine the serum zinc (Zn) level and frailty in patients with chronic liver diseases (CLDs, <i>n</i> = 285, 107 liver cirrhosis cases, median age = 66 years). Frailty was defined as a clinical syndrome in which three or more of the following criteria were met (frailty score 3, 4, or 5): unintentional body weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, muscle weakness (grip strength: <26 kg in men and <18 kg in women), slow walking speed (<1.0 m/s), and low physical activity. Robust (frailty score 0), prefrail (frailty score 1 or 2), and frailty were found in 90 (31.6%), 157 (55.1%), and 38 (13.3%), respectively. The median serum Zn levels in patients with frailty, prefrailty, and robust were 59.7 μg/dL, 72.8 μg/dL, and 76.9 μg/dL, respectively (<i>p</i>-values: frailty vs. prefrail, <i>p</i> < 0.0001; prefrail vs. robust, <i>p</i> = 0.0063; frailty vs. robust, <i>p</i> < 0.0001; overall <i>p</i> < 0.0001). For all cases, variables with absolute values of correlation coefficient with frailty score (0–5) ≥ 0.3 were age (<i>r<sub>s</sub></i> = 0.3570, <i>p</i> < 0.0001), serum albumin (<i>r<sub>s</sub></i> = −0.3212, <i>p</i> < 0.0001), extracellular water to total body water ratio using bioimpedance analysis (<i>r<sub>s</sub></i> = 0.4386, <i>p</i> < 0.0001), and serum Zn level (<i>r<sub>s</sub></i> = −0.3406, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). In conclusion, decreased serum Zn level in patients with CLDs can be closely associated with the presence of frailty.
|
|---|
