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ALTERATION IN THE LEVEL OF SOME TRACE ELEMENTS IN THE SERA OF PATIENTS WITH KALA AZAR
هدى ظاهر هذال
Authors : Nada M. Al-Basheer1 BSc PhD, Yahya Y.Z. Farid2 BSc PhD, Hussein K.A. Hussein3 MSc
Abstract Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (Kalaazar) is an important endemic disease in Iraq (WHO 2000) .The disease appears to affect infants and young children mostly under 2 years old .The disease is very dangerous and fatal if it is left without treatment .Trace elements have an important role in the treatment and prognosis of different types of parasitic infection Objective: Study the relationship between serum trace elements and the disease which may be used as an indicator of the course of the disease Methods: 14 male and 12 female patients (positive IFAT) their age were between 6 months and 15 years were used in this study .Serum copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and magnesium were measured using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: There is a significant increase (p<0.05) in serum Cu and significant decrease in serum Zn of kala-azar patients. Conclusions: Body reaction against parasite infection is associated with different changes in serum level of trace elements. Keywords: kala-azar, trace elements, copper, zinc, magnesium, visceral leishmaniasis 1Introduction It has become well established that many trace elements play an essential role in a number of biological processes through their action as activator or inhibitor of enzymatic reaction by competing with other elements and proteins for the binding sites, by influencing the permeability of the cell membrane[1], or through other mechanism[2]. Several biological mechanisms have been proposed to explain how trace elements could reduce the incidence of a number of different cancer and infectious disease[3]. Visceral leishmanasis is an important endemic disease in Iraq[4,5]; 1 Medical

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Iraqi J Med Sci, 2005; Vol. 4 (1): 10-13