Blood and faecal lead levels in children with various functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Introduction: To investigate the blood lead levels (BLLs) and faecal lead levels (FLLs) in children with various functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) and compare them with controls.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and two children with FGIDs defined by the Rome IV criteria, aged 4-18 years, and one hundred and two sex matched healthy children were enrolled in the study. Children with FGIDs were divided into three subgroups as functional constipation (FC) (n = 36), functional abdominal pain (FAP) (n = 36) and functional nausea (FN) (n = 30). The lead levels were measured using atomic absorption spectrometer.

Results: The median BLLs in the FGIDs group was significantly higher than in controls (5.12 and 1.77 µg/dL, respectively). The BLLs were above 5 µg/dL in 51,9% of children with FGIDs. There was statistically significant difference in BLLs between FC subgroup and the other subgroups (FAP and FN) (p = 0.003, p < 0.001 respectively). The FLLs in the FGIDs group was significantly higher than in controls (28.08 and 0.01 µg/g, respectively). There was no significant difference in FLLs between FC subgroup and the other subgroups (p = 0.992, p = 0.989 respectively). No significant relation found between BLLs and FLLs of the FGIDs group (p = 0.123).

Conclusion: This study revealed that children with FGIDs had higher BLLs and FLLs than controls and also more than half of children with FGIDs had BLLs ≥5 µg/dL which is considered as toxic level. These results might revive the question of whether or not clinicians need to evaluate routine BLLs in children with FGIDs.