Determination of Zinc Levels in Cord Blood and Its Possible Effects on the Fetus

This study was conducted in order to determine the zinc level in the cord blood of the pregnant women who applied for birth to Karab�k Private Medikar Hospital and to examine the possible effects of zinc on the fetus. The sample of the study was made up with face-to-face questionnaire method of 50 pregnant women who applied to the hospital for giving birth, who did not have understanding and speaking problems, who could speak and understand Turkish and who accepted the study. The collection of cord blood samples for research; cord blood was obtained by umbilical cord clamping during the new-born intensive care unit (if there is no health problem of the new-born) by taking 5-10 ml of blood from the arterial part of the cord and slowly transferring it to trace element tubes (without EDTA). The level of zinc in cord blood was analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) Graphite System Method. Also, the relationship between cord blood zinc level and independent variables showed nonparametric distribution, therefore, the data obtained were evaluated with percentage, arithmetic mean, frequency distributions and Kruskal Wallis H Test and Mann Whitney U Test were used for comparisons. The mean age of the pregnant women was found to be 30.08. in this research. The mean zinc level of cord blood was found to be 97.71 ?g/dl in our study. A moderate, positive way and statistically significant relationship was found between maternal age and zinc level (rs=0.34; p0.05) among of baby's weight (p = 0.566), height (p = 0.554), head circumference (p = 0.767), birth week (p = 0.104), 1st minute apgar score (p = 0.166), 5th minute apgar score (p = 0.089).