Vitamin E levels after gastric surgery.

Evidence suggestive of vitamin E deficiency has been reported in children and adults with malabsorption (Gordon, Nitowsky, Tildon and Levin, 1958; Braunstein, 1961; Binder, Herting, Hurst, Finch and Spiro, 1965). In addition to low plasma tocopherol levels, experimental depletion of vitamin E in animals and man results in an increased haemolysis of erythrocytes exposed to hydrogen peroxide (Rose and Gy6rgy, 1952; Horwitt, 1962), and this is widely used as an additional test for deficiency of the vitamin. After partial gastrectomy and other operations for peptic ulcer, malabsorption may be found (Everson, 1952; Shingleton, Isley, Floyd, Sanders, Baylin, Postlethwait, Ruffin, 1957; Tyor and Ruffin, 1958; Weir and Gatenby, 1963; Deller and Witts, 1962), and it seemed possible that vitamin E deficiency might also occur. In this study the plasma vitamin E levels and the susceptibility of erythrocytes to haemolysis by hydrogen peroxide were measured in patients after gastric surgery, and compared with values found in normal subjects and patients with peptic ulcer.