Background: Tonsillitis is a disorder in which the tonsils are inflamed (sore and swollen). It is a type of pharyngitis. The factors that contribute in tonsillitis primarily revolve around the immune system. Zinc play a key role in the integrity of the immune system. Tonsils and zinc have major role in immunity and recent studies have provided evidence that the tonsils produce T lymphocytes.

Objective: The aim of this to evaluate the effect of serum zinc level on patients with chronic tonsillitis. And to correlate the effect of the age, duration of chronic tonsillitis infection on serum zinc level.

Materials and Method: This study was performed in Khartoum state at Al Doha E.N.T Specialized Hospital, during the period from February to June 2017.50 samples were collected from patients suffering from recurrent tonsillitis as test group. In addition to other 50 samples from healthy volunteer sex and age matched as control group. The patient sample were collected from al Doha ENT specialized hospital. The levels of serum zinc elements were determined in both groups by atomic absorption spectroscopy

Result: The levels of serum zinc were significantly lower in the recurrent tonsillitis group when compared with reference group (0.225 ± 0.081 mg/l versus 0.78± 0.21mg/l respectively) (p ≤ 0.05) .Where as there was no statistically significant difference in the mean serum zinc between gender (male, female) in study group (0.23 ± 0.079 mg/l versus 0.21 ±0.08 mg/l ) (p = o.36 ) , our  study observed insignificant week positive correlation between zinc level(mg/l) and age in patient with recurrent tonsillitis (r=0.024, P= 0.86). Also insignificant weak negative correlation between zinc level (mg/l) and duration , recurrence of recurrent tonsillitis (r= -0.016,P= 0.910). (r=-0.076, p=0.59) respectively.

Conclusion: This study revealed that low serum zinc level depresses various subsets of immunity and predisposes the individual to recurrent and chronic tonsillitis infection.

Keywords: Chronic tonsillitis, infection, serum Zinc, Immune System.

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Abdelmula M. Abdalla

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