A 50-year follow-up of childhood plumbism. Hypertension, renal function, and hemoglobin levels among survivors
H. Hu
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
A group of 192 subjects with well-documented lead poisoning in 1930 to 1942
were identified in this pilot study. Thirty-five of 72 survivors traced to
a Boston area address and 22 age-, sex-, race-, and neighborhood-matched
controls were recruited into a clinical study. One matched subject with
plumbism had grossly abnormal renal function and an elevated blood lead
level of an unclear cause. Among the remaining 21 matched pairs, the risk
of hypertension was significantly higher in subjects with plumbism
(relative risk, 7.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 42.3). Mean adjusted
creatinine clearance rates for subjects with plumbism, however, were
significantly higher than those of controls and supranormal in comparison
to rates predicted for sex and age. Subjects with plumbism had
significantly lower hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit readings than
the controls. Blood lead and serum creatinine levels were low for both
groups. These results suggest that survivors of childhood lead poisoning
have an increased risk of clinically significant hypertension developing in
the setting of supranormal creatinine clearance rates.
