earticle

영어

According to analysis of correlations between nail growth and diseases, the selenium content of toenails can be a barometer of liver or coronary artery disease. In addition, the calcium and magnesium contents of fingernails can be correlated with Bone Mineral Density (BMD) according to age. This study collected nail samples from adolescents, who are undergoing rapid mental and physical development, and analyzed the major minerals. Adolescence is a critical period in which nutritional balance has a significant effect on mental and physical growth. For this study, nails were sampled from a total of 60 adolescents in Seoul, and the contents of 15 different minerals (macro- and micro-minerals) were measured using the ICP emission spectrochemical analysis tester. The mineral content of nails by gender was then comparatively analyzed. In terms of macro-minerals, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus and sulfur were measured. In terms of micro-minerals, copper, zinc, iron, manganese, chromium, selenium, boron, cobalt and molybdenum were measured to provide a reference range for the mineral content of nails in Korean adolescents. According to a comparative analysis of mineral contents between boys and girls based on the results of the test above, boys had greater mineral content than girls in fingernails for Na (p<.05) and K (p<.001). In the cases of Zn (p<.001), Fe (p<.001), Mn (p<.001) and Cr (p<.001), in contrast, the nails of girls were higher than those of boys. This study investigated the mineral content of fingernails in Korean adolescents, which has never been undertaken before. Because there were no reference data on the standard mineral content of adolescent fingernails, this study measured the average reference range through the quantitative measurement of mineral contents per 1 gram of fingernail using 60 adolescents as the sample. Changes in mineral content were examined through comparative analysis between boys and girls. The study results found that nail samples can be used as a clinical tool to measure Korean adolescents’ nutritional status based on mineral content, which revealed statistically significant differences. The reference values obtained in this study would be useful in studying the relationship between diverse diseases and mineral content of nails in Korean adolescents provided that there is no large regional difference in terms of the mineral content of nails in the adolescents living in other regions.