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Zinc deficiency

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Zinc deficiency may be due to dietary lack, total parenteral nutrition without zinc supplementation, or as part of a generalised malabsorption. Rarely there is a genetic basis - acrodermatitis enteropathica.

Clinical features:

  • diarrhoea
  • alopecia
  • poor wound healing
  • defective taste
  • failure to thrive
  • the syndrome of acrodermatitis enteropathica

Diagnosis is made by giving a therapeutic trial of zinc tablets; plasma levels are an unreliable indicator of zinc deficiency because the plasma level may be lowered, for example, in acute infection and after trauma.


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