RESUMO
The importance of chromium (Cr) for carbohydrate metabolism is unclear from the existing literature. Therefore, we have measured the concentration of chromium in the hair of 44 insulin dependent diabetic children and 95 healthy children. In the diabetic children the mean +/- SEM of Cr was 1.96 +/- 0.51 micrograms/ml, with 1.04 +/- 0.18 micrograms/ml being the mean for the females and 2.66 +/- 0.93 micrograms/ml the mean for the males. In the healthy children the mean concentration +/- SEM of Cr was 1.69 +/- 0.27 micrograms/g with 1.18 +/- 0.21 micrograms/ml and 2.35 micrograms/ml being the result for females and males, respectively. No significant differences were found in Cr levels in the hair with regard to age, sex, weight and height, neither when comparing between the two groups (diabetic children and healthy children) nor within these groups. A distribution has been made of the Cr levels in hair according to percentiles in both groups. For concentrations under 0.457 +/- g/g there is a significantly larger percentage of healthy children than diabetic children (p less than 0.001). A new, fast and reliable method for the determination of Cr in hair is described. This method employs spectrophotometry of atomic absorption with a graphite oven and dramatically reduces the time normally required for this determination.
