Vitamin E deficiency and psychomotor dysfunction in adults with primary biliary cirrhosis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin E deficiency in adults with chronic cholestatic liver disease and to quantify the association between their psychomotor performance and vitamin E status. In 42 female patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, 43.5% met two standard criteria for vitamin E deficiency. Vitamin E-deficient patients performed less well than did healthy control subjects on six of eight neuropsychologic tests of psychomotor capacity (p less than 0.01). Vitamin E-sufficient patients did not differ significantly from normal control subjects. Serum vitamin E concentrations were significantly lower in the group classified as significantly psychomotor-impaired by two independent neuropsychologists (blind to vitamin E status) whereas liver-injury measures failed to distinguish between these two groups. Patients with low serum vitamin E exhibited clinically evident neurologic abnormalities. These data suggest that vitamin E deficiency may, in part, underlie psychomotor and neurologic disturbance found in adult patients with chronic cholestatic liver disease.