American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 24, 506-509, Copyright © 1971 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Correlation of zinc concentrations in human plasma and hair

¹ From the Trace Element Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Hospital, Washington, D.C., the Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Nemazee Hospital and the Pahlavi Nutrition Research Project, Pahlavi University School of Medicine, Shiraz, Iran

Hair and plasma zinc concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectrophometry during October 1968 in 75 Iraian children aged 6 to 12 years. Plasma zinc was 72 ± 12 g/100 ml (X ± sd). This was significantly lower than that found in 26 American children aged 3 to 13 years (P < 0.001) (1). The mean hair zinc content (199 ± 22 ppm) reported here is significantly greater (P < 0.001) than the 163 ± 22 ppm (X ± se) reported by Eminians et al. (10) for their Iranian village control males of a similar age group. The correlation coefficient between the zinc content of paired plasma and hair samples has an absolute value of 0.05 and is not statistically significant (P > 0.50). These data do not support the suggestion that the zinc content of hair is a reliable indicator of body zinc stores in prepubescent children.

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