title: Survey of blood lead and plasma aluminium concentrations in patients of a renal unit.
abstract: Blood lead and plasma aluminium concentrations have been measured in patients with end-stage chronic renal failure treated by haemodialysis (HD) or by continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and in a control group of non-dialysed patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). Data on a group of subjects with normal renal function is included for comparison. We have found significantly increased mean blood lead and plasma aluminium concentrations in all patients with chronic renal failure compared to a group with normal renal function. All blood lead concentrations were within the accepted safe exposure range of less than 1.8 mumol/l (380 micrograms/l]. There were significant differences among the patient groups: home HD, 0.60 +/- 0.25 mumol/l (124 +/- 52 micrograms/l); hospital HD, 0.39 +/- 0.31 mumol/l (81 +/- 64 micrograms/l); CAPD, 0.32 +/- 0.17 mumol/l (66 +/- 35 micrograms/l); CRF, 0.38 +/- 0.20 mumol/l (79 +/- 41 micrograms/l); normal, 0.24 +/- 0.11 mumol/l (50 +/- 23 micrograms/l). Correction of the blood lead results for haemoglobin accentuates these differences (i.e. hospital HD, 4.61 +/- 3.25 nmol/g (0.96 +/- 0.67 micrograms/g); CRF, 3.05 +/- 1.46 nmol/g (0.63 +/- 0.30 micrograms/g); normal, 1.65 +/- 0.70 nmol/g (0.34 +/- 0.14 micrograms/g). Plasma aluminium concentrations show a similar pattern: home HD, 1.09 +/- 0.70 mumol/l (29.4 +/- 18.9 micrograms/l); hospital HD, 0.81 +/- 0.58 mumol/l (21.9 +/- 15.7 micrograms/l); CAPD, 0.34 +/- 0.34 mumol/l (9.2 +/- 9.2 micrograms/l); CRF, 0.18 +/- 0.09 mumol/l (4.9 +/- 2.4 micrograms/l); normal, 0.09 +/- 0.07 mumol/l (2.4 +/- 1.9 micrograms/l).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Pathology, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000535:Aluminum / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006437:Hemodialysis, Home; D006452:Hemoglobinometry; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood*; D007677:Kidney Function Tests; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010531:Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory; D006435:Renal Dialysis
chemical_list: D007854:Lead; D000535:Aluminum