Relationships between plasma zinc and ferritin with nutritional status in thalassemic children
Abstract
Background Repeated blood transfusions in thalassemic chil-dren can lead to iron overload in the body. High ferritin level leads
to low plasma zinc status because of their competitive inhibition.
Previous study found that there was a correlation between plasma
zinc level and nutritional status.
Objective To obtain plasma zinc level, to investigate the correla-
tion between plasma zinc and ferritin, and the impact of plasma
zinc on nutritional status in children with thallasemia.
Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on 67 thalas-
semic children. This study was performed at Thalassemia Center,
Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, from 1 st until 31 st of March
2005. The age of the patients ranged from 4 to 18 years, with fer-
ritin levels more than 2000 ng/ml during the last 6 months or total
transfusion more than 5 liters. The subjects were divided into 2
groups, i.e. group 1 (4-10 years) and group 2 (>10-18 years). Di-
etary intake was assessed by 3 day-dietary recall. The nutritional
status were judged by mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) for
age and height for age (H/A). Venous blood was obtained to mea-
sure plasma zinc and ferritin levels. Statistical analysis was done
by Student’s t-test (2-tailed) and linear regression analysis.
Results We found that 42% subjects were well-nourished, 51%
were undernourished, and 7% were severely malnourished. All sub-
jects had low plasma zinc status 31.9 (SD 16.9) μg/dl. There was a
weak negative correlation between plasma zinc and ferritin level (r
= -0.282, P=0.021). Lower zinc intake was detected in 65 out of 67
subjects.
Conclusion All thalassemic children in our hospital had low plasma
zinc level. There was a weak negative correlation between plasma
zinc level and ferritin level. There was no significant correlation
between plasma zinc status and nutritional status
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Accepted 2016-10-16
Published 2016-10-18