Letter to editor: Blood pressure, hypertension and lead exposure

A significant association of office diastolic blood pressure with low-level blood lead exposure was reported in a Brazilian adult population. However, caution should be taken to interpret these results. The multivariable-adjusted association with blood pressure was positive for diastolic blood pressure, but inverse for systolic blood pressure. The association sizes were infinitesimal without clinical relevance. The outcome measures, i.e. blood pressure and the prevalence of hypertension were analysed across categories of the blood lead distribution – not in relation to blood lead as continuous variable. Blood pressure was the average of two oscillometric office readings, whereas ambulatory monitoring is the state-of-the-art.