A comparison of two methods for the evaluation of the daily urinary fluoride excretion in Romanian pre-school children.
OBJECTIVE
To compare two different methods of estimating daily fluoride urinary excretion in pre-school children under stable fluoride intake conditions.


METHODS
Thirty-five healthy kindergarten children, permanent residents of Targu-Mures, Romania, where the average drinking water fluoride concentration is 0.12 mg F/L, participated on two separate occasions, when they were aged 4-6 and 5-7 years, respectively in the collection of a) a mid-morning spot urine sample and b) a 16-h time-controlled urine sampling. In case a), the ratio of concentrations of fluoride and creatinine were measured, while in case b) the rates of fluoride excretion in two separate 8-hour periods were used to estimate the 24-hour fluoride urinary excretion.


RESULTS
The estimated average daily fluoride urinary excretion values (S.D.) were 0.318 (0.182) mg F/day for method a) and 0.341 (0.193) mg F/day for method b). These values were not significantly different (Mann-Whitney U test; p = 0.49). The estimated daily fluoride doses were 0.040 (0.021) and 0.043 (0.022) mg F/kg body weight/day, respectively. The latter values were not significantly different (Mann Whitney U test; p = 0.38).


CONCLUSIONS
Results obtained suggest that under stable F-intake conditions the estimation of the daily fluoride urinary excretion by means of a mid-morning spot urine sample yields comparable results to those obtained with the more involved method of separate, two 8 h (16 h) time-controlled urine sampling recommended by the WHO. Use of spot urine sampling appears to be particularly useful for epidemiological studies.
Székely
M
M
Dept. of Propedeutics and Dental Materials, University of Targu-Mures, Romania.
Bánóczy
J
J
Fazakas
Z
Z
Hobai
S
S
Villa
A
A
D001628:Beverages; D002327:Cariostatic Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005459:Fluorides / Q000032:analysis / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D017736:Ion-Selective Electrodes; D008297:Male; D012383:Romania; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013662:Tea; D013997:Time Factors; D014099:Toothbrushing; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis
D002327:Cariostatic Agents; D013662:Tea; D003404:Creatinine; D005459:Fluorides