Relationship between Zink and Anaemica in Chronic Haemodialysis Patients

Abstract

End stage renal disease (ESRD) patients receiving haemodialysis (HD) are frequently associatedwith anaemia. Zinc, being an important nutrient for haemoglobin synthesis, was studied for it'seffect, if any, on renal disease associated anaemia among patients in the HD unit of BSMMU(formerly IPGMR), Dhaka. Surprisingly, a tow plasma zinc level and a high corpuscular (RBC)zinc level was observed. All of our subjects were found anaemic. A significant correlation wasobserved between plasma zinc level on one hand and haemoglobin level as well as RBC countson the other hand. There are several suggestions for this low plasma and high corpuscular zinclevel. However, this altered zinc level in plasma and red blood corpuscles might interfere withhaemoglobin synthesis and might be one of the factors for renal disease associated anaemia.doi: 10.3329/taj.v16i1.3895TAJ June 2003; Vol.16(1): 12-14