Objective: To study the correlation between the plasma zinc levels of Thai participants with alopecia areata (AA) and compare to the levels of Thais who do not have AA.
Material and method: A cross-sectional study of thirty Thais with AA (case group) and thirty gender and age-matched healthy subjects (control group). All participants underwent blood tests measuring zinc and confounding factors.
Results: Participants in both groups were the same gender, 20 (66.7%) women and 10 (33.3%) men. The median age was 37 in the study group and 38 in the control. In the study group, the median disease duration was three months (interquartile range 1-6). Patients who had AA for more than three months had a lower mean plasma zinc level than those who had AA for less than three months without statistical significance (58.33±8.59, 62.43±13.19 μg/dL (mean ± standard deviation or SD), respectively, p-value = 0.40). The correlation between plasma zinc levels and disease duration of AA (p-value = 0.31) and the plasma zinc levels and the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) score (p-value = 0.16) were not statistically significant. The mean plasma zinc level in the study group was lower than in the control group with statistical significance (61.20±12.00, 67.17±10.04 μg/dL (mean ± SD), respectively, p-value = 0.04).
Conclusion: The plasma zinc level in participants with AA is statistically significantly lower than in participants without AA. A more in depth study should be conducted to determine whether prescribing zinc supplement would be of benefit to AA patients.