Zinc Levels in Egyptian Infantile Wheezers
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- Category: Vol. 77, June 2009
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Zinc Levels in Egyptian Infantile Wheezers,MOHAMAD ABD EL-FATTAH, EMAN HALAWA and OLFAT SHAKER
Abstract
Infantile wheezing diseases, which include viral associated wheeze and asthma, are very common diseases in young children. Zinc deficiency is linked to a group of respiratory disorders including pneumonia, cystic fibrosis and asthma. It is hypothesized that dietary zinc deficiency may be an impor-tant contributing factor to the increasing incidence of wheezing and asthma. The aim of this work was to test the hypothesis of zinc deficiency in infantile wheezing via measuring the hair zinc levels in a group of Egyptian infant wheezers and comparing it to a matching healthy control group. The follow-ing methods were employed: Sixty wheezy infants participated in this case-control study. Their age ranged from 6 months to two years. They were recruited from Allergy Clinic, New Children’s Hospital, Cairo University. They were referred to the clinic with a physician diagnosis of infantile wheezing. Sixty age- and sex -matched healthy infants were included as controls. For each study participant, the following was per-formed: thorough history taking and clinical examination, complete blood picture to determine the total leucocytic count and the absolute eosinophilic count, and serum total IgE. Levels of zinc were determined in hair using the atomic absorption spectroscopy. The study yielded the following results: There was a significant difference in absolute eosino-philic count between cases and controls (885±2172 versus 175±113 cells/ml respectively, p=0.036). In addition, there was a significant difference in total serum IgE levels between cases and controls (118.6±120.6 versus 35.14±40.38 IU/ml respectively, p=0.001). There was a significant difference in hair zinc levels between the two groups, mean hair zinc in cases was significantly lower in cases (103.68±20.13 mg/g) than in controls (255.3±79.3 mg/g) (p=0.001). The study concluded that hair zinc levels in wheezy infants were signif-icantly lower than in healthy controls. The study suggests that zinc deficiency might increase the risk of infantile wheezing.