Acute myocardial infarction; serum zinc level in patients

ABSTRACT

To determine the serum zinc level in patients with acute myocardial infarction at Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad. This six months study was conducted on the patients with acute myocardial infarction presented at coronary care unit [CCU] of Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad. All the patients with myocardial infarction, of >/= 30 years of age and either gender diagnosed as acute myocardial infarction were admitted and evaluate for their serum zinc level by taking 2cc fasting venous blood sample on admission and at one or two day interval thereafter. The data entered, saved and analyze in SPSS version 11.00. Total 142 patients with acute MI were registered for study. Of these 92[64.8%] were males and 50 [35.2%] were females. The mean age +/- SD for male and female was 54.98 +/- 11.88 and 50.52 +/- 9.85 respectively. Regarding plasma zinc level, hypozincemia [low zinc level] was observed in 90[63%] patients, of which 53[58.9%] were males and 37[41.1%] were females while the 52[37%] subjects had normozincemia [normal zinc level]. In 33 [36.7%] patients the serum zinc was low at admission, 38[42.4%] patients had hypozincemia on 3rd day of admission while 19[21.1%] had low serum zinc level on 5th day of admission. The mean +/- SD for serum zinc level in overall population was 9.78 +/- 2.31 and the mean +/- SD of patients with hypozincemia was 7.85 +/- 3.42, whereas the mean +/- SD of patients with normozincemia was 16.85 +/- 2.53. During hospitalization the complications of acute MI identified in hypozincemic population were cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac failure, pericarditis, recurrent infarction, thromboembolism and mitral regurgitation. It is observed that serum zinc level appears to be low in patients with acute myocardial infarction