Electrical power lines and childhood leukemia: a study from Greece.

Residential proximity to electrical power lines of different voltage in relation to childhood leukemia was investigated through a case-control study undertaken in Greece during 1993-1994. The study comprised 117 incident cases of childhood leukemia and 202 age-, gender- and place-of-residence-matched controls. Four measures of exposure to magnetic fields were developed, using data provided by the Public Power Corporation of Greece: Voltage (V) divided by the distance (d), V/d2, V/d3 and an adaptation of the Wertheimer-Leeper code. Conditional-logistic-regression modeling was used to adjust for potential confounding influences of 18 variables. No significant trends of childhood leukemia risk with increasing exposure levels were noted, nor were there statistically significant elevations of disease risk at the higher exposure levels in each measure of exposure. These results do not support a causal link between residential proximity to electrical high-voltage wires and childhood leukemia risk, but in themselves do not refute a weak empirical association.

Hypersensitivity reactions during hemodialysis related to the use of acetate dialysate. A case report.

A patient developed a hypersensitivity reaction two weeks after being put on hemodialysis with acetate dialysate. The reactions appeared exclusively during hemodialysis and were relieved immediately after its termination. These allergic manifestations disappeared with substitution of bicarbonate for acetate dialysate and reappeared upon rechallenge with acetate dialysate. The rest of the dialysis materials were excluded as possible causes of allergy by scheduled dialysis sessions with varying materials. Acetate dialysate is implicated as the cause of allergy reaction in this case.