1 Department of Pediatrics, 2nd Floor Maloney Building, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
In Reply.
We thank Drs Golden and Golden for their comments, but we would like to point out several differences between the two patient groups which may explain the dissimilarity in response to zinc. Our patients were appropriately grown, very premature infants receiving adequate protein and caloric intake who were noted to be edematous and hypoproteinemic at less than 40 weeks' postconceptional age. As they were part of a vitamin E and retinopathy of prematurity study being conducted at that time, their serum levels were closely monitored to maintain vitamin E sufficiency.