The Prevalence of Zinc Deficiency in Patients With Thalassemia in South East of Iran, Sistan and Baluchistan Province

BACKGROUND: There are different and controversial reports about zinc deficiency in patients with major thalassemia. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate zinc status in patients with major thalassemia in Sistan and Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was performed in Ali Asghar Hospital, a specialized governmental hospital located in Zahedan, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 369 patients with a history of major thalassemia for more than 5 years entered the study using convenience sampling method. Thirty-six subjects were excluded from the study based on our exclusion criteria. Zinc level was measured in all patients after 12 hours fasting using atomic absorption spectrometry method in 2012. RESULTS: Of 369 cases, 333 patients were eligible and evaluated. The mean age was 15.63 ± 7.4 years. One hundred ninety two cases were male and others were female (141 cases). About 27% (90) of the cases were 5-10 years-old, 24% (80) were 10-15 years-old and 49% were older than 15 years old. Iron chelator in 65.46% was Desferrioxamine, in 28.2% was Deferasirox and in 19.5% was combination of Desferrioxamine and Deferiprone. All cases had zinc deficiency, and 98.5% had severe zinc deficiency. Others (1.5%) had mild deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: Our study on 333 patients with major thalassemia documented severe zinc deficiency in all cases. We had no cases with normal or increased zinc levels. It was different with other reports in the world.