Effect of elevated blood lead levels on erythropoietin concentrations among anemic children in the first six years

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out on 95 children, 52 males and 43 females, who aged 1 to 6 years. They were selected from the outpatient pediatric clinics during the period from October 1999 to November 2000. The aim of this work is to study the effect of elevated blood lead levels on erythropoietin concentrations among children in the first six years. They were classified into two groups - The control group included 22 normal healthy children. The anemic group included 73 children with low normal hemoglobin levels and history of known risk factors for elevated blood lead levels. Each case was subjected to a thorough clinical examination and complete environmental history with known risk factors for elevated blood lead levels. The following investigations were carried out for all cases - blood lead levels, Plasma erythropoietin values, hemoglobin levels, MCV values, reticulocytic counts, serum iron and ferritin levels. Our finding confirmed that the elevated blood lead levels in anemic group were associated with lower erythropoietin concentrations. There was significant correlation between elevated blood lead levels with each of the lower erythropoietin and hemoglobin levels in anemic group compared with the control group. We also found that serum iron and ferritin levels were not statistically significant in anemic group compared with the control. We can conclude that the anemia of high lead concentrations is throught to involve the inhibition of heme biosynthesis. Anemia associated with lead toxicity has been observed in the absence of iron deficiency. In lead exposed children are associated with a decline in renal erythropoietin production, suggesting a loss of renal endocrine function