| Effect of Succimer on Growth of Preschool Children with Moderate Blood Lead Levels Karen E. Peterson,1 Mikhail Salganik,2 Carla Campbell,3 George G. Rhoads,4 Judith Rubin,5 Omer Berger,6 James H. Ware,2 and Walter Rogan7 1Departments of Nutrition and of Society, Human Development, and Health, and 2Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 3The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; 4University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; 5University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 6Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; 7National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Abstract
Growth deficits associated with lead exposure might be ameliorated by chelation. We examined the effect of succimer on growth in 780 children 12-33 months old who had blood lead levels of 20-44 µg/dL and were randomized to receive up to three 26-day courses of succimer or placebo in a multicenter, double-blind trial. The difference in changes in weight and height between succimer and placebo groups at 1-34 months was calculated by fitting cubic splines. The difference in height change in children on succimer compared with placebo was -0.27 cm [95% confidence interval (95% CI) , -0.42 to -0.11] from baseline to 9 months, when 99% of children had completed treatment, and -0.43 cm (95% CI, -0.77 to -0.09) during 34 months of follow-up. Similar differences in weight gain were not statistically significant. Although succimer lowers blood lead in moderately lead-poisoned children, it does not have a beneficial effect on growth and may have an adverse effect. Key words: blood lead levels, chelation, children, clinical trial, growth, succimer. Environ Health Perspect 112:233-237 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6331 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 22 October 2003]
Address correspondence to K.E. Peterson, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 USA. Telephone: (617) 432-1333. Fax: (617) 432-2435. E-mail: kpeterso@hsph.harvard.edu Support for this study came from the NIEHS (NO1 ES35360) . The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 12 March 2003 ; accepted 22 October 2003.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
