Zinc and copper in Indian patients of tuberculosis: impact on antitubercular therapy

The effectiveness and success of antitubercular therapy is mainly measured by identifying the organism in sputum. In certain patients, especially in geriatric patients, available tuberculosis tests are not satisfactory and do not provide enough information on the effectiveness of antitubercular therapy, as the symptoms might be confused with the existing symptoms of ongoing diseases. Therefore, 60 diagnosed and randomly selected patients with tuberculosis were included into this study. The patients with other associated diseases likely to influence serum copper and zinc were not included in the study. The estimations of serum copper and zinc were done in healthy volunteers and in tubercular patients before the start of treatment and after 4 wk of antitubercular treatment. The average plasma concentration of serum copper and zinc in healthy volunteers were 102 +/- 20 microg/dL and 96 +/- 18 microg/dL respectively. In tuberculosis patients, serum copper and zinc levels were 123.65 +/- 9.98 microg/dL and 64.14 +/- 3.97 microg/dL, respectively, before the start of treatment, which came down to 116.23 +/- 4.27 mug/dL and 74.31 +/- 3.60 microg/dL, respectively, after 4 wk of antitubercular treatment.