Blood lead and coronary heart disease risk among elderly men in Zutphen, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Information about blood lead and other coronary heart disease risk factors was coliected in 1977 among 152 men aged 57 to 76 years in the town of Zutphen, the Netherlands. Blood lead was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The blood lead distribution was skewed to the right.The median blood lead concentration was 167 pg/L, and the mean was 183 pg/L Blood lead levels above 300 pg/L were present among 8.6% and levels above 400 pg/L among 1.3% of the Zutphen men. Blood lead was of borderline significance to cigarette smoking. After both univariate and multivariate analyses, a significant association was found between blood lead and blood pressure. This relation was stronger for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure. Of the 141 elderly men free of coronary heart disease in 1977, 26 developed coronary heart disease between 1977 and 1985. Blood lead was not associated with coronary heart disease incidence in both univariate and multivariate analyses.

Lead Levels and Ischemic Heart Disease in a Prospective Study of Middle-Aged and Elderly Men: the VA Normative Aging Study

“…It is likely that previous studies (Kromhout 1988; Pocock et al 1988), although suggestive of a relationship between lead exposure and heart disease, did not find an association in multivariate analysis because of differences in study population. Another likely reason is that blood lead was used as a biomarker for exposure.…”

“…Their results were similar to those of Pocock et al in that blood lead was associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease (relative hazard = 2.14; p = 0.003) and cardiovascular disease (relative hazard = 1.58; p = 0.05) in an unadjusted analysis; but the association disappeared when confounders were adjusted for. Another smaller study ( n = 141) by Kromhout (1988) in the Netherlands found no association between blood lead and coronary heart disease in univariate and multivariate analysis. However, only 26 participants had coronary heart disease in their 8 years of follow-up data.…”

“…However, the association between lead levels and risk for future ischemic heart disease (IHD) after controlling for potential confounders has not been established. The three previous reports on the possible association between lead levels and cardiovascular disease found no such evidence (Kromhout 1988; Moller and Kristensen 1992; Pocock et al 1988). These reports used blood lead level as a biomarker for lead exposure, which is now known to poorly reflect the cumulative internal dose of lead.…”

“…Furthermore, it has also been reported that higher blood lead levels lead to increased mortality from cardiovascular causes (Lustberg and Silbergeld 2002). However, only three previous investigations have assessed the association between blood lead levels and heart disease (Kromhout 1988; Moller and Kristensen 1992; Pocock et al 1988). Pocock et al (1988) followed 7,371 men 40–59 years of age in Britain for 6 years, to assess the relationship between blood lead levels at baseline and IHD.…”

Lead Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease—A Systematic Review

“…Lead was measured in blood in all the prospective cohort studies (Kromhout 1988; Lustberg and Silbergeld 2002; Menke et al 2006; Møller and Kristensen 1992; Pocock et al 1988) and in the only cross-sectional study available (Muntner et al 2005). Blood lead levels were substantially lower in more recent compared with older studies.…”