scholarly journals The correlation between uremic pruritus and blood lead levels in prevalent hemodialysis patients and its relation to the severity of pruritus using visual analog score

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahar Mahmoud Shawky ◽  
Reeham Abdel Aziz Abdel Hamid ◽  
Lina Essam Khedr

Abstract Background Pruritus is a common and often distressing symptom in patients with chronic kidney disease. Though the pathogenesis of uremic pruritus remains poorly understood, systemic inflammation has presented itself as one of the possible explanations. High blood lead levels (BLLs) have been noted to be associated with inflammation and poor nutritional status in hemodialysis patients. Our aim is to study the relation between blood lead levels and uremic pruritus. This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled 50 patients; all were on regular hemodialysis 3 times per week for at least 6 months. Patients were divided into 2 groups, group 1 (n =10) with no pruritus and group 2 (n=40) with varying degrees of pruritus. Group 2 was further divided according to intensity of pruritus by visual analog score (VAS) into mild (n=10), moderate (n=20), and severe pruritus (n=10). Results There was a significant difference in serum lead levels and ferritin levels between groups 1 and 2 (p value < 0.01 and < 0.05, respectively). There was a statistically significant difference in serum lead levels in the groups with varying intensity of pruritus, having higher serum lead levels in patients who exhibited severe pruritus (p value < 0.005) Moreover, a statistically significant relation between elevated blood lead levels and the duration of dialysis was observed in this study. Conclusion Uremic pruritus is a multi-factorial phenomenon, and our study showed that blood lead levels in hemodialysis patients might be associated with increased intensity of pruritus.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary N. Haan ◽  
Marianne Gerson ◽  
B. Anne Zishka

Objectives. To estimate the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels in children receiving well-care checkups; and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain key risk factors in detecting children at higher risk for elevated blood lead levels. Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. Two facilities of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (KPMCP) health maintenance organization (HMO), northern California region. Patients. Six hundred thirty-six children, aged 12 to 60 months, who were seen at four KPMCP facilities in two subregions for a well-care checkup from September 1991 through August 1992. Interventions. Blood samples were collected from each child and analyzed for lead content. Participating parents completed a questionnaire that included questions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the child's and the parents' lead exposure via home, workplace, and hobbies. Results. Ninety-six percent of the children had blood lead levels under 10 µ/dL. Blood lead levels declined with increasing age and were higher for black children compared with whites. Age of residential housing, mother's education, and residence in an old house with peeling paint had low sensitivity and positive predictive value for identifying children with blood lead levels over 10 µ/dL. Conclusion. Universal routine screening for elevated blood lead levels in children in an employed, HMO-insured population is not warranted on grounds of prevalence. Responses to CDC questions do not effectively identify high-risk children in this population.


2020 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 105288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Ming Li ◽  
Zhen-Yan Gao ◽  
Chen-Yin Dong ◽  
Mei-Qin Wu ◽  
Jin Yan ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loreto Lisboa ◽  
José Klarián ◽  
Rosario Toro Campos ◽  
Verónica Iglesias

Evidence suggests that an old mineral storage site removed in 1998 due to high lead content, remains as a source of exposure in the city of Antofagasta, Chile. The aim was to determine the association between blood lead levels in children and the residential proximity to the old mineral storage site. A cross sectional study was conducted with 185 children aged 7 to 16 years. The outcome variable was blood lead levels measured in 2005. The exposure variable was the distance between the current residence and the old mineral storage site. The distance was measured in meters by Geographic Information System (GIS). The median blood lead level in 2005 was 3.3μg/dL (interquartile range ‒ IQR: 2.0-4.3). A significant inverse association was found between the residential distance to the old mineral storage site and the blood lead levels in children, after adjusting by confounders (β: -0.04; 95%CI: -0.09; -0.01). This result suggests that the old mineral storage site continues to be a source of lead exposure for the children living nearby.


2012 ◽  
Vol 215 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Bas ◽  
Octavio P. Luzardo ◽  
Luis Peña-Quintana ◽  
Juan E. González ◽  
Juan A. Peña ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 972
Author(s):  
Kanimozhi Sadasivam ◽  
Balaji Chinnasami ◽  
Apurva Hariharan ◽  
Balaji Ramraj ◽  
Rahul Saravanan ◽  
...  

Background: Lead toxicity in children is a serious problem affecting their neurodevelopment. Although CDC mandates screening for lead toxicity regularly in children, India doesn’t have any lead related public health program in place. In resource limited India a prescreening lead risk assessment questionnaire will be more economical than universal screening for blood lead levels (BLL). Authors aim to evaluate the accuracy of a validated modified CDC lead risk assessment questionnaire in predicting elevated BLL.Methods: Authors conducted an explorative cross-sectional study from July to August 2017 in 340 children aged 6 months to 6 years. A standardized self-administered questionnaire modified from CDC lead risk assessment questionnaire was administered in the children. Also, BLL were measured in all study subjects using lead care II analyser. Data from questionnaire were compared with BLL to test the accuracy of questionnaire.Results: Blood lead levels was high (>5ug/dl) in 57.9% of study subjects especially in children between 24-35 months. Employment in battery manufacturing companies (P=0.0001), usage of cosmetics (P=0.019), parental smoking history (P=0.001), involvement in painting, arts (P=0.0001) and malnourished children (P=0.018) were the risk factors associated with undesirable BLL. The modified questionnaire had a sensitivity of 87.9% and specificity of 66.7% for detecting elevated BLL.Conclusions: The modified CDC lead risk assessment questionnaire is a sensitive tool in identifying high risk cases of lead toxicity in children.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
Nova Amalia Sakina ◽  
Suhartono Suhartono ◽  
Nikie Astorina Yunita Dewanti

Background: Lead has no advantage for health, pregnant women are vulnerable to lead exposure. Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) in pregnant women that exceed the quality standard in accordance with Center for Disease Control (CDC) (>5 μg/dL) can encounter spontaneous miscarriage and fatigue easily during pregnancy, BLLs in pregnant women < 10 μg/dL can induce health problem during pregnancy such as hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia which is the cause of mortality in pregnant women and high maternal mortality. The aim of study to measure BBLs and the source of exposure.Methods: Pregnant women in 2nd and 3rd trimester were recruited in 4 Subdistricts. Cross sectional study is used with 86 pregnant women located in Wanasari Subdistrict, Bulakamba Subdistrict, Losari Subdistrict and Tanjung Subdistrict with purposive sampling method. BLLs during pregnancy were determined by Atomic Adsorpiton Spectrometer.Results: The results shows that mean of BLLs in pregnant women in this study were 42.437 + 19.758 μg/dL. The source of lead exposure are the habit of consuming seafood (44.2%), wrapping food using newspaper (80.2%), being involve in agricultural activity (37.2%), and passive smoking (70.9%).Conclusions: To recapitulate, BBLs in pregnant women in the northern area of Brebes Regency have exceeded the standard set by the CDC of 5 μg/dL. The dominant source of lead exposure are the habit of wrapping food using newspaper and passive smoking.


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