Table 4.

Concentration of silicon (µmol/L) in plasma of control patients (CTR group) and patients subjected to total gastrectomy (GX group) at the baseline and one year after the surgical procedure^*

Silicon concentration	Baseline	One year after surgical procedure
CTR group (N = 6)	54.70 ± 9.0	47.70 ± 1.50
GX group (N = 8)	40.87 ± 2.73	29.96 ± 1.52†,‡

^*Values are means ± SEM.

^†Statistically significant difference versus baseline value for P < 0.01 tested by paired Student’s t-test for dependent variables.

^‡Statistically significant differences versus CTR group for P < 0.0001 tested by non-paired Student’s t-test for non-dependent variables.