Correlation of Serum Zinc Level with Hyperbilirubinemia in Neonates-A Case-Control Study

Introduction: Neonatal jaundice is the common cause of hospitalisation in the first month of life. Factors that affect the severity of neonatal jaundice includes maternal, pre-natal, and neonatal factors as well as environmental factors. Zinc (Zn) is one of the factors that affect the severity of neonatal jaundice as it prevents the lipid depolarization of the cell membranes. Hypozincemia may alter the erythrocyte membrane resulting in deficient synthesis of enzymes which play a key role in bilirubin metabolism. Aim: To correlate the serum Zinc level with bilirubin level in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia and also to compare with healthy controls. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was done in Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory of Father Muller Medical College and Hospital, Mangalore, Karnataka, India, from April 2018 to June 2018. Total 60 subjects were included in the study, which was divided into two groups: Neonates with clinically diagnosed hyperbilirubinemia (Group I) and normal healthy neonates as controls (Group II). Serum levels of zinc, total bilirubin, conjugated and unconjugated bilirubin were compared among groups. Correlation among the biochemical parameters was analysed by Karl Pearson's Correlation Analysis. Results: In present study, 30 subjects were males and 30 females with mean age of 4.90 +/- 1.06 days among Group I and 2.50 +/- 1.61 days among Group II. This study observed significantly decreased mean levels of serum Zinc (171.24 +/- 19.82 pg/dL) in Group I patients when compared to mean levels of serum Zinc (189.23 +/- 17.90 pg/ dL) in Group II controls. There was statistically significant positive correlation among serum levels of Zinc and total bilirubin in Group I patients (p<0.05) when compared to Group II. Conclusion: There was statistically significant positive correlation was found among serum levels of Zinc and total bilirubin in cases when compared to healthy controls. Current results showed, zinc may have a protective effect in the incidence of neonatal jaundice.