%0 Journal Article
%T Zinc and vitamin A supplementation fails to reduce sputum conversion time in severely malnourished pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Indonesia
%A Trevino A Pakasi
%A Elvina Karyadi
%A Ni Made Suratih
%A Michael Salean
%A Nining Darmawidjaja
%A Hans Bor
%A Koos van der Velden
%A Wil MV Dolmans
%A Jos WM van der Meer
%J Nutrition Journal
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2891-9-41
%X We studied the efficacy of which single micronutrient contributed more to the sputum conversion time.In a double-blind randomized community trial, newly sputum smear positive pulmonary TB patients were assigned randomly to receive zinc, vitamin A, zinc + vitamin A or placebo on top of TB treatment. Patients were asked to deliver their sputum on weekly basis to measure positivity of the bacteria. Nutritional status, chest x-ray, hemoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP), retinol and zinc level were examined prior to, after 2 and 6 months of treatment.Initially, 300 patients were enrolled, and 255 finished the treatment. Most patients were severely malnourished (mean BMI 16.5 ¡À 2.2 Kg/m2). Patients in the zinc + vitamin A group showed earlier sputum conversion time (mean 1.9 weeks) compared with that in the other groups; however the difference was not significant. Also, no benefit could be demonstrated of any of the used supplementations on clinical, nutritional, chest x-ray, or laboratory findings.This study among severely malnourished TB patients, did not confirm that single or combined supplementation of zinc and vitamin A significantly reduced sputum conversion time or had other significant benefit.The presence of micronutrient deficiencies among tuberculosis (TB) patients has led to the question whether micronutrient supplementation would give additional benefits for the patients on top of the TB treatment[1]. In a previous clinical trial of our group found that combination of zinc and vitamin A supplementation resulted in earlier sputum conversion than placebo, which began as early as 2 weeks after the administration of standard anti-TB treatment[2].Vitamin A, as found as retinol in plasma, is one of important micronutrient which has specific immune function [3]. The presence of vitamin A deficiency in sputum-positive pulmonary TB patients compared with healthy subjects was confirmed[1,4]. and associated with the future of pulmonary adult TB patients [5].Zinc is a tr
%U http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/41