Zinc nutrition in children with chronic liver disease

Body zinc status of 13 pediatric patients with chronic liver disease was co mpared with controls, and the relation of the zinc status with the severity of the liver disease was investigated. Mean serum zinc level of the patien ts with chronic liver disease was significantly lower than mean serum zinc level of the controls (11.2 mu mol/L vs. 12.7 mu mol/L, P < 0.05). Seven pa tients had serum zinc levels below 10.7 mu mol/L, whereas all of the contro ls had higher values. When serum zinc levels were compared between patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) , CAH group had a significantly lower mean serum zinc level than the CPH gr oup (9.6 mu mol/L vs. 12.3 mu mol/L, P < 0.05). Mean hair zinc level of the patients was higher than the mean hair zinc level of the controls; this di fference was highly significant (218 mu g/g for patients vs. 91 mu g/g for controls, P < 0.001). Mean hair zinc level of the CPH group was 198.64 mu g /g, whereas CAH group had a mean hair zinc of 267.88 mu g/g, which is signi ficantly higher (P < 0.05). The difference between mean urinary zinc excret ion of the CAH and CPH groups was also statistically significant with 6.27 mu mol/day in the patients with CAH and 2.41 mu mol/day in the patients wit h CPH (P < 0.05). We conclude that serum zinc levels and body zinc turnover of the pediatric patients are decreased in chronic liver disease in associ ation with the severity of hepatocellular injury, whereas urinary zinc excr etion is increased in the more severe form of liver disease, and in this co ntext, zinc supplementation is indispensable in chronic liver disease. J. T race Elem. Exp. Med. 13:271-276, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.