Blood lead levels and childhood asthma

Objectives To measure blood lead levels in children (5–14 y) with bronchial asthma, and correlate with asthma severity. Design Cross-sectional analytical. Setting Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Clinic of a Children’s hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Participants 200 children (127 males) with bronchial asthma and125 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (80 males). Procedure Blood lead levels were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer technique, and were subsequently correlated with asthma severity. Results No significant difference in mean (SD) blood lead levels was observed between children with asthma [13.3 (4.8) μg/dL] and control group [11.4 (3.9) μg/dL]. 190 children (58.5%) had elevated blood lead levels (>10 μg/dL), with no significant difference between patients (60%) and controls (56%). Patients with elevated blood lead levels had significantly higher frequency of eosinophilia (66.7%) and increased total immunoglobulin E (83.3%) compared to other patients with blood lead levels