Study on serum copper, zinc and selenium trace element levels in Psoriasis

Abstract

Introduction: Psoriasis is one of the skin disorder, mainly characterized by scaly papules and plaques. The etiology of psoriasis is multifactorial and still not properly understood. In our study, we tried to elucidate the relation between psoriasis and trace elemens namely Zinc, Copper and Selenium. Materials and Methods: This study enrolled 50 psoriasis patients with 37 males and 13 females, with 10-80 years age. The patients were randomly selected from the outpatient clinic of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprosy Department, Narayana medical college and hospital. The age, sex matched 50 healthy volunteers included as controls in this study. Levels of serum Copper (Cu), Zinc(Zn), and Selenium(Se) analysed using Atomic absorption Spectrophotometery. Results: In our study, the mean Serum Zinc, Selenium and Copper levels were 61.9680±15.96824, 64.2060±17.44780 and 56.4120±8.51976 respectively, lower than the controls which was stastically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: In psoriasis, serum Cu, Zn and Se levels were observed to be low, needs to manage therapeutically by oral supplementation. More studies are required to carryout to standardize the diagnostic levels of Cu, Zn and Se and their role in psoriasis pathogenseis.