Evaluation of Serum Zinc Levels in Patients with Behcet Syndrome with and without Uveitis

Behcet's syndrome is a chronic vasculitis disease that affects multiple organs, including the eyes. Since the involvement of eyes due to inflammation can lead to blindness, therefore it is important that the identifying factors that are associated with increased inflammation be recognized. In recent years the potential role of mineral elements such as zinc in inflammatory conditions has been suggested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of zinc in Behcet's disease with eye involvement.
This cross-sectional study was carried out on 75 patients with Behcet's disease who were divided into three groups consisting of active uveitis, without uveitis and improved uveitis. Venous blood samples were collected from all patients to measure zinc levels using ELISA. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.
The mean serum zinc level was 130 ± 89/44 in patients with active uveitis, 147 ± 92/26 in the group with improved uveitis and 146 ± 92/24 in the control group. In patients with active uveitis serum zinc levels were lower than the other two groups but this difference was not statistically significant.
In this study, there was no significant reduction in serum zinc levels in active uveitis group. Therefore, unlike similar studies, we could not find evidence to claim that Behcet's disease is associated with zinc deficiency and its effects on the exacerbation of ocular inflammation at least in our patients. Therefore, further studies with a larger population of patients and more accurate methods of measurement can be helpful to elucidate such relation.