RESUMO
Background: Copper deficiency can weaken immunity and increase the incidence of infections or infections may reduce the serum copper levels. Objectives: The present investigation assessed the serum level of copper in the cases of leptospirosis. Methods: The study involved 55 patients of whom had either icteric or non-icteric type of leptospirosis, 25 as other febrile and 25 as healthy controls. Serum copper was evaluated using commercially available kits. All the 55 patients are serologically confirmed for leptospirosis by using both ELISA and MAT. Twenty five age-matched febrile cases other than leptospirosis and twenty five healthy normal individuals were taken as control. The serum copper level was estimated by calorimetric method of Di-Br-PAESA. Results: The maximum and minimum age of patients was 54 and 18 years respectively; males dominated with 47 cases in this study. Out of 55 cases, 45 cases are considered as high risk groups of having minimum of 10 years of occupational exposure. There was a significant decrease of serum copper level among 55 leptospirosis confirmed cases (ranged from 26 to 63 μg/dl) when compared with controls (ranged from 114.12 to 126.32 μg/dl); whereas in febrile cases other than leptospirosis showed maximum of serum decrease upto 52.7 μg/dl. Conclusion: In all cases including non leptospirosis febrile cases also, the serum copper levels are significantly decreased after treatment with doxycycline and other antibiotics. This indicates that serum copper can be used as a biochemical marker for screening leptospirosis, as a valuable prognostic indicator for monitoring disease