Summary
The importance of zinc in many processes of diseases remains unclear
up today. Nevertheless many biochemical or clinical studies let support a high clinical relevance
of trace elements especially zinc in the therapeutic concepts of diseases. Unfortunately the border
between severe (or real) and mild (or subclinical) zinc deficiency is not clear defined. In
addition methodical problems in determination of trace elements and misinterpretations of study
results lead to unjustified assignment from several diseases in the group of zinc deficiency
disorders. Another current problem is the consideration of bioavailability of oral commercial trace
element products. Especially the regulation of zinc uptake in human under normal conditions and in
case of zinc deficiency is not clear at this time. These problems let become tangled the actual
literature for the clinical active physician at the field of zinc.
In this mini review there
is given an overview about published clinical studies with oral zinc supplementation in the past
years.
Orale Zinktherapie bei Patienten mit vermutetem subklinischem Zinkdefizit - ein
kritischer Report
Die eigentliche Bedeutung des Spurenelementes Zink in vielen
Krankheitsprozessen ist bis heute nicht geklärt. Unabhängig davon lassen viele
biochemische sowie klinische Studien eine große therapeutische Relevanz der Spurenelemente in
der Behandlung verschiedener Krankheitsbilder vermuten. Leider bestehen nach wie vor Probleme,
einen milden Zinkmangel von einem schweren Zinkmangelzustand abzugrenzen und dessen Bedeutung
einzuordnen. Insbesondere methodische Probleme und Fehlinterpretationen von Studienergebnissen
führen dazu, dass bei vielen Erkrankungen Zinkmangelzustände als ursächlich
angenommen werden. Ein weiteres ungelöstes Problem ist die Frage nach der
Bioverfügbarkeit der kommerziell vorhandenen oralen Zinktherapeutika. Insbesondere wird dabei
die Rolle der Zinkaufnahmeregulation unter normalen Bedingungen unterschätzt. Diese stehenden
Probleme führen dazu, dass die vorhandenen Literaturdaten vor allen Dingen für den
klinisch tätigen Arzt unübersichtlich werden.
In dieser Übersichtsarbeit
werden eine Zusammenfassung der vorhandenen Datenlage und eine Wertung der Studienergebnisse
für den praktisch tätigen Arzt gegeben.
Key words
Zinc - Oral Therapy - Review - Zinc
Deficiency
Schlüsselwörter
Zink - Orale
Therapie - Zinkdefizit
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Address for correspondence
Dr. Michael Hocke
Department of Internal Medicine I Friedrich Schiller University
Erlanger Allee 101
07747 Jena
eMail: hocke@polkim.med.uni-jena.de
