Hospital-based screening to detect patients with cadmium nephropathy in cadmium-polluted areas in Japan

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND@#In health examinations for local inhabitants in cadmium-polluted areas, only healthy people are investigated, suggesting that patients with severe cadmium nephropathy or itai-itai disease may be overlooked. Therefore, we performed hospital-based screening to detect patients with cadmium nephropathy in two core medical institutes in cadmium-polluted areas in Akita prefecture, Japan.@*METHODS@#Subjects for this screening were selected from patients aged 60 years or older with elevated serum creatinine levels and no definite renal diseases. We enrolled 35 subjects from a hospital in Odate city and 22 from a clinic in Kosaka town. Urinary ß-microglobulin and blood and urinary cadmium levels were measured.@*RESULTS@#The criteria for renal tubular dysfunction and the over-accumulation of cadmium were set as a urinary ß-microglobulin level higher than 10,000 μg/g cr. and a blood cadmium level higher than 6 μg/L or urinary cadmium level higher than 10 μg/g cr., respectively. Subjects who fulfilled both criteria were diagnosed with cadmium nephropathy. Six out of 57 patients (10.5% of all subjects) had cadmium nephropathy.@*CONCLUSIONS@#This hospital-based screening is a very effective strategy for detecting patients with cadmium nephropathy in cadmium-polluted areas, playing a complementary role in health examinations for local inhabitants.@*REGISTRATION NUMBER@#No. 6, date of registration 6 June, 2010 (Akita Rosai Hospital), and No. 1117, date of registration 26 December, 2013 (Akita University).