Baseline Hypozincemia Predicts Clinical Relapse in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis in Remission

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Clinical Nutrition
• Immunology

Background:

• Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by relapsing-remitting disease course.
• Identifying modifiable prognostic factors for UC relapse is clinically significant.
• Zinc deficiency is common in inflammatory bowel disease patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the independent association between hypozincemia and the risk of clinical relapse in UC patients.
• To determine if baseline serum zinc levels can predict future UC relapse.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study of 102 UC patients in clinical remission.
• Serum zinc levels were measured at baseline, classifying patients into hypozincemia (<80 μg/dL) or normozincemia (≥80 μg/dL) groups.
• Clinical relapse within one year was the primary outcome, analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models.

Main Results:

• Patients with hypozincemia had a significantly higher rate of clinical relapse (74.0%) compared to normozincemia (34.6%) (P<0.001).
• Relapse-free survival was significantly shorter in the hypozincemia group (log-rank: P<0.001).
• Hypozincemia was independently associated with an increased risk of relapse (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.42; P=0.003).

Conclusions:

• Hypozincemia is an independent predictor of increased clinical relapse risk in UC patients.
• Baseline serum zinc assessment may offer prognostic value beyond inflammatory and nutritional markers for UC.
• Monitoring and potentially correcting zinc levels could be a therapeutic strategy to reduce UC relapse.