ABSTRACT
This preliminary study is an attempt to controls and to assess zinc status in a sample of metabolic syndrome patients in comparison with those of apparently healthy controls and to ascertain the relationship between zinc and metabolic syndrome features. Collection of data was carried out during the period April 2006 till January 2007, at the Medical Consultation Department, Baghdad Teaching Hospital in the Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq. In the first part of the study [a case-control study], the metabolic syndrome group, 100 metabolic syndrome patients who were chosen from patients with cardiovascular disease attending the medical examination during the period of the study. The control group includes 90 subjects who were selected from the workers of the same hospital. In the second part of the study [single blind with intervention study], metabolic syndrome patients [24 patients] divided into two groups, the first group included 12 patients supplemented with oral zinc [30 mg/day] for 50 days, and second group included 12 patients given placebo and designed as a control group. General information for each subject was obtained by questionnaire designed for the study. Waist circumference, blood pressure estimation, fasting serum glucose, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, zinc and urinary zinc/g creatinine were estimated for each subject. The first part of the study shows that the mean value for serum zinc level was significantly lower in metabolic syndrome patients than healthy controls [83.1 +/- 18.3 micro g/dl Vs 87.7 +/- 11.1 micro g/dl, p<0.05]. The mean urinary zinc levels, corrected for creatinine, were higher in metabolic syndrome patients than in controls [p<0.01] and increased linearly with the increasing number of metabolic syndrome components [r=0.252, p<0.05]. The prevalence of marginal zinc deficiency was significantly higher in metabolic syndrome group than in controls [24.0% Vs 14.4%, p<0.05]. The prevalence of raised fasting serum glucose, triglycerides and reduced high density lipoprotein cholesterol was higher in the metabolic syndrome group with low serum zinc [Zn< 70.0 micro g/dl] compared to zinc sufficient group [Zn> 70.0 micro g/dl] by 5.7%, 2 0.6% and 10.3% respectively. The second part of the study showed that the mean value of triglycerides of the zinc-supplemented group decreased at the end of 50 days by 6.2%, whereas the mean value of high density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by 13.6%. Marginal zinc deficiencies have been observed in the subjects study with a higher prevalence in metabolic syndrome group. The measured zinc status is associated with the features of metabolic syndrome