High plasma concentration of myeloperoxidase in cirrhosis: a possible marker of hypersplenism.

Plasma myeloperoxidase levels in patients with cirrhosis were compared with those in patients with chronic hepatitis and healthy controls by means of a specific radioimmunoassay for myeloperoxidase. The mean concentration of plasma myeloperoxidase in cirrhotic patients (309.1 +/- 17.2 ng/ml, n = 41) was markedly higher than that in chronic hepatitis patients (222.6 +/- 17.2 ng/ml, n = 21) (p < 0.01) and normal controls (219.5 +/- 5.7 ng/ml, n = 50) (p < 0.01). Plasma myeloperoxidase showed good negative correlations with neutrocyte count (r = -0.32, p < 0.01), thrombocyte count (r = -0.40, p < 0.01), red blood cell count (r = -0.32, p < 0.01), serum albumin (r = -0.35, p < 0.01), and cholinesterase (r = -0.32, p < 0.02) and positive correlations with serum alkaline phosphatase (r = 0.49; p < 0.01) and lactate dehydrogenase (r = 0.31, p < 0.01) in patients with cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis. Among lactate dehydrogenase isozymes, a good positive correlation was seen between plasma myeloperoxidase and lactate dehydrogenase-2 (r = 0.40, p < 0.01) and lactate dehydrogenase-1 (r = 0.03, p < 0.02). Plasma myeloperoxidase was significantly higher in the cirrhotic and chronic hepatitis patients with splenomegaly (341.1 +/- 19.4 ng/ml, n = 31) than in those without splenomegaly (217.4 +/- 12.2 ng/ml, n = 29) (p < 0.01). We also examined the difference between plasma levels of myeloperoxidase in the portal and peripheral blood.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)