[Zinc status in children and adolescents with growth hormone deficiency]

Abstract

The objective was to study blood Zinc levels and hair Zinc content in three subsets of 40 naive patients (29 boys) with childhood onset GH deficiency (isolated total GHD, partial GHD, syndrome biological inactive GH). Our data showed that GHD in children and adolescents, independently of GHD severity and etiology, is associated with significant decrease of blood zinc level (P < 0.05). This study evaluated the strong link between Zinc and IGF-1 level in GHD children (r = 0.796; P < 0.001). The published data urge to early detection the blood Zinc level in GHD patients and lend support Zn-supplementation in order to optimize the therapeutic regimes for children with GH deficiency.