SERUM COPPER, MAGNESIUM AND ZINC LEVEL IN WHEEZY INFANTS

Trace elements are micronutrient present in small amount in the body they have antioxidant and immune-regulatory function and possibly have role in pathogenesis in infant wheezes. We estimated serum level of copper .zinc magnesium in 30 wheezy infants versus 10 control Both groups were age, sex and weight matched. Serum copper, magnesium was significantly higher in patient versus control (48.6±36.8 &2.57± 0.69 respectively in cases vs. 21.7±5.7 &2.18± 0.11 respectively in control ) p was 0.00 &0.006 respectively. Serum zinc was not significantly different between patients and control (83.7±12 in cases vs 85.3±36.2 in control ) ,p was 0.832 .Serum copper was significantly lower in wheezy cases with bronchopneumonia than wheezy cases without (29.5±19.5 vs 55.5±39.5) p was 0.028 ,while zinc was higher in these cases than those cases without (108.2±34.5 vs 67.9±33,8) p was 0.034 .There was no significant difference between wheezy bronchopneumonia and non-infection cases regarding magnesium (2.97±1.2 vs 2.4±0.3) p was 0.232 .Their results prove that possible environmental zinc, copper accumulation in children may play role pathogenesis in infant wheezes ,also proves ant infection role of copper