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Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals

BACKGROUND: Drug abuse, especially opium abuse, is a major public health problem in Iran. Recent reports suggest that opium sellers cheat their customers by adding lead to the opium. Contaminated opium can threaten the health of consumers. The present study aimed to compare the serum level of lead b...

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Autores principales: Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi, Ansari, Mehdi, Shahesmaeili, Armita, Qaraie, Ali
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24494092
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author Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi
Ansari, Mehdi
Shahesmaeili, Armita
Qaraie, Ali
author_facet Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi
Ansari, Mehdi
Shahesmaeili, Armita
Qaraie, Ali
author_sort Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Drug abuse, especially opium abuse, is a major public health problem in Iran. Recent reports suggest that opium sellers cheat their customers by adding lead to the opium. Contaminated opium can threaten the health of consumers. The present study aimed to compare the serum level of lead between opium dependents and a control group. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study in which 50 opium dependents aged 20 to 60 years old were compared with a control group of 43 non-dependents who were matched with the case group in terms of sex and age. The serum level of lead and liver function tests including serum total bilirubin, AST, ALT, Alkaline-phosphatase and hemoglobin were measured for all subjects. FINDINGS: The mean level of serum lead concentration in opium dependents and controls was 3929.358 ± 147.67 and 3532.721 ± 1141.53, respectively and the difference was not statistically significant. There was no significant correlation between serum level of lead and age, duration of opium dependency, serum total bilirubin, hemoglobin, AST, ALT, and Alkaline-phosphate. CONCLUSION: Although there was no significant relationship between opium consumption and serum level of lead, the concentration of lead in dependents' serum was higher than controls. Further studies are needed to approve this relationship to be used for screening and on time diagnosis of opium dependents.
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spelling pubmed-39054882014-02-03 Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Ansari, Mehdi Shahesmaeili, Armita Qaraie, Ali Addict Health Original Article BACKGROUND: Drug abuse, especially opium abuse, is a major public health problem in Iran. Recent reports suggest that opium sellers cheat their customers by adding lead to the opium. Contaminated opium can threaten the health of consumers. The present study aimed to compare the serum level of lead between opium dependents and a control group. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study in which 50 opium dependents aged 20 to 60 years old were compared with a control group of 43 non-dependents who were matched with the case group in terms of sex and age. The serum level of lead and liver function tests including serum total bilirubin, AST, ALT, Alkaline-phosphatase and hemoglobin were measured for all subjects. FINDINGS: The mean level of serum lead concentration in opium dependents and controls was 3929.358 ± 147.67 and 3532.721 ± 1141.53, respectively and the difference was not statistically significant. There was no significant correlation between serum level of lead and age, duration of opium dependency, serum total bilirubin, hemoglobin, AST, ALT, and Alkaline-phosphate. CONCLUSION: Although there was no significant relationship between opium consumption and serum level of lead, the concentration of lead in dependents' serum was higher than controls. Further studies are needed to approve this relationship to be used for screening and on time diagnosis of opium dependents. Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2009 /pmc/articles/PMC3905488/ /pubmed/24494092 Text en © 2009 Kerman University of Medical Sciences http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly.
spellingShingle Original Article
Hayatbakhsh Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi
Ansari, Mehdi
Shahesmaeili, Armita
Qaraie, Ali
Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title_full Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title_fullStr Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title_full_unstemmed Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title_short Lead Serum Levels in Opium-Dependent Individuals
title_sort lead serum levels in opium-dependent individuals
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24494092
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