Clinical Chemistry, Vol 21, 528-532, Copyright © 1975 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Serum Zinc, Iron, and Copper Concentrations during Typhoid Fever in Man: Effect of Chloramphenicol Therapy

¹ U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Md. 21701; and The Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md. 21201.

In volunteers experimentally infected with Salmonella typhi, serum iron and zinc concentrations became significantly depressed and there was a concomitant rise in serum copper before the onset of overt clinical illness. However, after several days of fever and the initiation of chloramphenicol therapy, serum iron and zinc concentrations significantly increased. Additional studies—in volunteers with typhoid fever treated with chloramphenicol, in a volunteer with typhoid fever receiving cefazolin and gentamicin, and in untreated rhesus monkeys infected with Salmonella typhimurium—provided evidence that the increase in serum iron concentration during the febrile phase was the result of chloramphenicol therapy, whereas the increase in serum zinc concentrations was a disease-related phenomenon. The importance of trace-metal monitoring during infectious disease and chemotherapy is discussed

Submitted on November 12, 1974
Accepted on December 16, 1974