Associations between patella lead and blood pressure in lead workers

Background To compare associations of patella lead, a lead pool that may capture aspects of both current bioavailable and cumulative lead dose thus offering advantages over tibia or blood lead, with blood lead in models of blood pressure and hypertension and to examine effect modification by age, sex and polymorphisms of the genes encoding for the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD). Methods Cross-sectional data in 652 current and former lead workers were analyzed. Results Blood lead, but not patella lead, was positively associated with systolic blood pressure. Neither lead measure was associated with diastolic blood pressure or hypertension status. There was no evidence of effect modification. Conclusions In these workers, blood lead was more relevant to elevations in blood pressure than was patella lead. Additional research will be required to determine whether patella lead assessment provides unique information on vascular risk from lead exposure.