Comparison of Serum Zinc Level in Patients with Diabetes Type 1 and 2 and Its'' Relation to HbA1c

Background: diabetes mellitus (dm) is a major health care problem. the relationship between dm and zinc has frequently been reported in various research. the present study aims to investigate serum zinc level in patients with type 1 (iddm) and type 2 (niddm). association between glyaceted hemoglobin and level of zinc is also evaluted. materials and methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 subjects with dm (type l: n=30; type 2: n=30) who met inclusion criteria of the study. patients’ serum zinc level and hba1c were measured. data were analyzed using t-test and mann-withney u test. results: seventy five percent of the subjects were female. the average age of the iddm was 15.36±5.28 years and that of niddm was 48.70±11.45 years. the average hba1c of subjects was 8.06±1.64%. the average serum level of zinc in iddm group was 95.82±14.51 mg/dl and that of niddm was 97.47±32.36 mg/dl, no significant difference was found between the two groups. serum zinc difficiency was detected in 20% of the patients with niddm and 16.6% of the patients with iddm. however, no significant correlation between hba1c and serum level of zinc was detected in this study. conclusion: zinc deficiency was detected among a significant percentage of iddm and niddm patients, but no significant correlation between serum zinc level and hba1c was detected.