Skin disorders and vitamin A metabolism disturbances in chronic dialysis patients: the role of zinc, retinol-binding protein, retinol and retinoic acid.

The authors have studied--in the plasma--the changes of zinc, retinol binding protein (RBP), retinol and retinoic acid with reference to the dermatological status of fifty chronically haemodialysed renal insufficiency patients divided into four subgroups (normal skin, dry skin, dry skin with keratosis, and only keratosis). The results of these groups were compared to those of thirty healthy subjects. The values of these variables do not show any significant difference in function of the dermatological subgroups; but, despite the considerable rise in the retinol binding protein and retinol levels in comparison with the controls (haemodialysis patients: RBP = 11.77 +/- 2.83 mumol X l(-1), retinol = 7 +/- 2.57 mumol X l(-1); controls; RBP = 2.76 +/- 0.62 mumol X l(-1), retinol = 2.16 +/- 0.53 mumol X l(-1] the electromicroscopic examination of skin biopsy samples from some of the patients did not reveal any sign of hypervitaminosis A in the lesions.