title: Lead and sudden infant death. Investigations on blood samples of SID babies.
abstract: To investigate a potential relationship between an elevated lead burden and sudden infant death (SID), the lead concentrations (Pb-B) were determined in 41 blood samples from SID babies and compared with the Pb-B of 5 babies who died traumatically and 77 living control babies. Several factors that may influence the Pb-B were taken into consideration, especially a dependence of the Pb-B on age and social class. Moreover, a post-mortem water shift occurs in the blood. Even taking these factors into consideration the distribution of the Pb-B's of the SID group was found to differ on a highly significant level (greater than 99.9%) from the control group. Five Pb-B's of the SID group were higher than the highest lead concentration found in blood from the control babies. Negative influences of lead on the pre- and postnatal maturation of the brain are discussed in the search for a possible causal connection between an elevated lead burden and the occurrence of SID.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Rechtsmedizin, München, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Drasch
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kretschmer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lochner
mesh_terms: D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D007854:Lead