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Abstract Hepatic encephalopathy is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome that may occur in such diverse clinical situations as acute or chronic liver disease and spontaneous or iatrogenic portosystemic venous shunting.Zinc is an essential trace element and is a component of many metalloenzymes and metal-protein complexes such as metallothionine. We are trying to prove the relation between zinc deficiency and the hepatic encephalopathy and level of the disease to determine non traditional factors of the pathogenesis.This study was conducted in the Tropical Medicine and Biochemistry Departments, Zagazig university hospitals. The study included 163 patients classified into three groups,1st group(GI) 41 individuals with chronic HCV, 2nd group 61 patient (compensated cirrhosis post HCV infection) without history of overt hepatic encephalopathy were further subclassified into cases with minimal HE (grade1HE)and cases without HE by the use of paper sheets psychometric tests and 3rd group of 61 patient with decompensated cirrhosis with overt encephalopathy (episodic and presistent). |