NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In middle-aged type 2 diabetics, a low blood level of zinc is an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) events, a study in the March 2007 issue of Diabetes Care shows.

Finnish researchers assessed CHD mortality and the incidence of MI in relation to serum zinc levels in 1,050 people, aged 45 to 64, with type 2 diabetes diagnosed at least 8 years earlier.

During 7 years of follow up, 156 subjects died from CHD and 254 had a fatal or non-fatal MI.

According to Dr. Minna Soinio from University of Turku and colleagues, the average serum zinc level was statistically significantly lower in men and women who died from CHD than in those who did not (p = 0.016 and p = 0.022, respectively).

Subjects with serum zinc levels of 14.1 pmol/L or lower (the lowest quartile) had a higher risk of CHD death compared with subjects with serum zinc levels of > 14.1 pmol/L (20.8% versus 12.8%; p = 0.001).

Nonfatal or fatal MI rates in the corresponding groups were 30.5% and 22.0%, respectively (p = 0.005), the investigators report in the March issue of Diabetes Care.

In Cox regression analyses adjusting for age and sex, subjects in the lowest quartile of zinc had a 1.81-fold higher CHD mortality rate and a 1.4-fold higher risk for MI compared with subjects in the upper three zinc quartiles.

Further adjustment for lipid profile, duration of diabetes, HbA1C, hypertension, renal function, smoking, BMI, type of type of treatment, and area of residence did not alter the association appreciably.

Dr. Soinio and colleagues point out in their report that this study was conducted in the pre-statin era. "It would be interesting to see whether low serum zinc level also predicts CHD events in the statin era," they write.

While further studies are needed, they conclude, "theoretically our results are in favor of the possibility that zinc supplementation might be useful in preventing atherosclerotic complications in patients with type 2 diabetes."