Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Aim: To compare the Serum Zinc Levels in Asthmatic and Non-Asthmatic Children. Methods: This study was a case and control study, which was conducted on 80 asthmatic children denoted as cases and 80 non-asthmatic children denoted as controls who attended the Department of Pediatricsaged between 5 and 15 years and the diagnosis of asthma was based on a physician’s diagnosis according to the American Thoracic Society guidelines in accordance with guidelines of the Global Initiative for asthma and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire were included in the study. Results: Severity of asthma was based on ISAAC questionnaire. Amongst the cases, 19 had intermittent asthma, 15 of them had mild asthma, 17 of them had moderate asthma and 29 of them had severe asthma (Table2). Hypozincemia was defined as serum Zn level below 60.0 ng/dL. As an assessment of zinc deficiency in studied subjects, we analysed the case and control groups in terms of overall state of being deficient or having sufficient serum zinc levels which was further evaluated within case groups. In a total of 160 patients 55 of them were deficient in serum zinc levels with mean serum zinc level of 53.65ng/ dL, while as 105 of them had sufficient serum zinc level with mean value of 82.55ng/dL. Investigating the serum zinc levels in case and control patients, which was further evaluated within case groups, we found that mean serum zinc levels in cases was 59.04ng/dL while in controls it was 89.88ng/dL (taking 60ng/dL as the lowest normal range), which reflected a significant decrease in serum zinc levels in cases as compared to controls. Conclusion: We concluded that the Serum zinc levels were considerably lower in children with asthma than in healthy children.