PLASMA ZINC STATUS IN INDIAN CHILDHOOD TUBERCULOSIS - IMPACT OF ANTITUBERCULOSIS THERAPY

SETTING: Department of Paediatrics and Biochemistry, Postgraduate Inst itute 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 diseas e in relation to antituberculosis therapy. DESIGN: The plasma zinc sta tus of 50 children with different forms of tuberculosis was compared w ith 10 healthy and 10 malnourished children without tuberculosis at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months of antituberculosis therapy. RESULT: The mean pl asma zinc concentration in children with pulmonary tuberculosis (n = 2 0) was 68.65 +/- 2.50 mu g/dl, central nervous system (CNS) tuberculos is (n = 10) was 64.20 +/- 3.82 mu g/dl, tuberculous lymphadenitis (n = 10) was 63.2 +/- 3.77 mu g/dl and disseminated tuberculosis (n = 10) was 59.0 +/- 2.75 mu g/dl at 0 months. The mean plasma zinc level of h ealthy children was 129.10 +/- 3.01 mu g/dl and in malnourished non-tu berculous children it was 108.40 +/- 3.16 mu g/dl. Thus children with tuberculosis had significantly lower plasma zinc level than those with out 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.