Study of Cord Blood Lead Level in Full Term Neonates

Abstract

SUMMARY O ur study was undertaken to study cord blood lead level in a sample of full term Egyptian neonates and to correlate cord blood lead level to cord blood complete blood picture, cord blood Iron and anthropometric measures. Full-term neonates only were included in the study according to our criteria, excluding cases with congenital malformation, birth asphyxia, maternal diseases or premature rupture of membranes; and subjected to full history taking, full clinical examination and laboratory investigations (cord blood lead level, cord blood complete blood picture and cord blood iron). 50 healthy full term neonates were included in this study, obtaining the blood samples from their cord blood. The study showed that: The mean cord blood lead level in healthy full term neonates was 3.92 µg/dl ± 2.23, and that it is not affected by neonatal gender, living place, educational level and mineral supplementation. There is no significant relation between the cord blood lead blood levels in full term healthy neonates and the anthropometric measures. There is significant relation (Negative Correlation) between Cord blood lead level with cord blood iron level (r = -0.585, P value <0.001) and Hemoglobin (r = -0.279, P value 0.05). Non-significant correlation was detected between maternal hemoglobin level and neonatal cord blood lead, iron and hemoglobin levels. The level of neonatal cord blood lead and iron is not affected by neonatal gender, living place, educational level and maternal mineral supplementation.