Plasma zinc status in Indian childhood tuberculosis: impact of antituberculosis therapy.

SETTING

Department of Paediatrics and Biochemistry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the plasma zinc status in children with tuberculosis and to correlate it with nutritional status, activity and severity of disease in relation to antituberculosis therapy.

DESIGN

The plasma zinc status of 50 children with different forms of tuberculosis was compared with 10 healthy and 10 malnourished children without tuberculosis at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months of antituberculosis therapy.

RESULT: The mean plasma zinc concentration in children with pulmonary tuberculosis (n = 20) was 68.65+/-2.50 microg/dl, central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis (n = 10) was 64.20+/-3.82 microg/dl, tuberculous lymphadenitis (n = 10) was 63.2+/-3.77 microg/dl and disseminated tuberculosis (n = 10) was 59.0+/-2.75 microg/dl at 0 months. The mean plasma zinc level of healthy children was 129.10+/-3.01 microg/dl and in malnourished non-tuberculous children it was 108.40+/-3.16 microg/dl. Thus children with tuberculosis had significantly lower plasma zinc level than those without tuberculosis, irrespective of their nutritional status (P < 0.001). There was a significant rise in zinc level at the end of 6 months of antituberculosis therapy (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Plasma zinc status may prove to be a good objective marker for monitoring the severity of the disease and the response to therapy.