| Specimen requirement | Serum | Urine | |||||||||
| Adult patient: Special clotted blood tube for trace elements Minimum blood volume: 5 mL |
Spot
urine: Special acid wash bottle for trace elements Volume: 10 mL 24 Hr urine: U6 bottle |
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| Paediatric patient: Special clotted blood tube for trace elements Minimum blood volume: 3 mL |
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| Authorisation code required | No | Yes | |||||||||
| 24 Hr available service | No | No | |||||||||
| Precaution |
Haemolysed specimens are unsuitable. |
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| Method | Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) | ||||||||||
| Reference interval |
Serum:
< 5.0 µmol/L (zinc deficiency likely) (Source: (1) The Scottish Trace Element and Micronutrient Diagnostic and Research Laboratory (STEMDRL), NHS, UK.
Spot Urine:
< 1.1 µmol/mmol Cr
(Source: Central Sydney Lab Service Handbook)
< 21 µmol/24 Hr
(Source: Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics. 6th Edition. 2015) |
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| Clinical indication | Zinc deficiency or toxicity. | ||||||||||
| Result interpretation |
Serum: Serum zinc levels do not reliably reflect body zinc stores.
Patients taking oral contraceptives may have borderline to slightly reduced serum zinc levels.
Zinc deficiency may occur in patients on parenteral nutrition, with burns, vomiting, malabsorption or gastrointestinal fistula losses, and in acrodermatitis enteropathica.
Urine:
Urine zinc excretion gives an indication of the loosely bound or exchangeable zinc in the body but does not necessarily reflect body stores. Urinary zinc excretion is increased in an acute phase response and in other catabolic states. |
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| Measurement of uncertainty | |||||||||||
| Frequency of measurement | Weekly | ||||||||||