EVALUATION OF SERUM ZINC LEVEL

Back ground: Acne vulgaris is a common chronic inflammatory disease ofthe skin. Zinc is a trace element, exists in high amounts within the skin and especially theepidermis. Its importance for human metabolism has been noted by the dramatic improvementof acrodermatitis enteropathica following zinc supplementation. Objectives: To evaluate theserum zinc level among patients with acne vulgaris, and to correlate age, grade and durationof acne vulgaris with serum zinc level. Study Design: Case- control hospital base study.Setting: Khartoum state at Khartoum Dermatology & Venerology Hospital. Period: February toSeptember 2017. Materials Methods: 100 samples were collected from patients attending toKhartoum Dermatology & Venerology hospital suffering from acne vulgaris. Acne severity wasclassified according to Global Acne Grading System (GAGS). In addition to other 100 samplescollected from healthy individuals (students and nurse) sex and age matched as control. Thelevels of serum zinc was measured in each group by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Results:The study showed significant decrease in the zinc concentrations in acne vulgaris patientswhen compared with the reference group (0.207±0.04 mg/l versus 0.788 ± 0.14 mg/l) (p=0.000). The study observed decreased serum zinc level with advancedgrade of acne; mild47 patients (47%) (0.247 ± 0.05), moderate 33 (33%) (0.1925 ± 0.04) and severe in 20 (20%)(0.180 ± 0.03), based on the anova test analysis mean serum zinc levels were significantlylower in patients with mild to moderate and to severe acne vulgaris when compared betweenacne vulgairs grades and with reference group(p ≤ 0.001, p ≤ 0.01, p ≤ 0.05 respectively).The present study showed no correlation between zinc level (mg/l) and age in patient with acnevulgaris (years) (r=0.032, P =0.827). On the other hand significant correlation was recordedbetween serum zinc level (mg/l) and duration of the acne vulgaris in the study group (r=-0.311,p = 0.028). Conclusion: Study revealed that serum zinc levels is significantly decreased inpatients with acne vulgaris, and prescribing zinc supplement treatments help increasing thesuccess rate of acne treatment.