Growth retardation and zinc nutrition

Based on a previous report of a zinc deficiency syndrome in children characterized by low hair zinc, anorexia, poor growth, and hypogeusia, 12 children attending a pediatric endocrinology clinic for growth retardation and judged as having short stature as a variant of normal (SVN) were evaluated as to their zinc nutriture to learn whether zinc deficiency was a contributory factor. None was found to have the above syndrome, although one child did have a hair zinc concentration below 70 mug/g. The mean hair zinc of the SVN subjects was lower than the hair zinc of 40 apparently normal adolescents, 131+/-37 mug/g vs. 168+/-44 mug/g (P less than 0.02), but there was no difference found in plasma levels of zinc or in taste acuity. In contrast, five patients with total growth arrest secondary to juvenile Crohn's disease (CD) were found to have multiple findings consistent with zinc deficiency including low plasma zinc, low hair zinc, or hypogeusia.