Assessment of Zinc Levels in Serum Samples from Personnel of Firouzgar Hospital by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry(AAS)

Zinc deficiency is a common worldwide nutritional disorder. Determination of reference normal values for biological levels of serum zinc in general population is necessary to indicate true variation of elemental concentrations arising from physiological and pathological influences, poisonings, and occupational exposures, but there are no previous studies on zinc status in healthy, adult Iranian population. The aim of this study was to obtain the levels of serum zinc in this population to determine the normal nutritional status of zinc and evaluate the influence of certain factors like age, sex, Body Mass Index(BMI) and smoking habits. In this cross-sectional study, serum samples from 102 randomly selected, healthy personnel of Firouzgar Hospital(mean age: 33.8 ± 10.7 years and mean BMI: 23.74 ± 3.73 kg/m2) were collected and zinc concentration was determined by Flame-Atomic Absorption Spectrometry(AAS). The results were analyzed using uni and multi-variate statistical techniques. The average concentration of zinc in serum was 75.36µg/dl(confidence interval: 95%, ranging 43.54-107.18 µg/dl). Women showed lower zinc levels but there was no statistically significant difference. Serum zinc concentrations were unrelated to age(r=0.073 p=0.466) and BMI(r=0.052 p=0.604). Also smoker men had no significant lower zinc concentrations. About 47.1% of our cases had serum zinc concentrations below the cut off value of 70 µg/dl in serum, which can be interpreted as marginal or mild zinc deficiency.