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Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry

Of the hypothesized causes of Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting approximately 25% of military personnel deployed to the 1991 Gulf War, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) munitions has attracted international concern. Past research has not tested the potential associat...

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Autores principales: Parrish, Randall R., Haley, Robert W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7893152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33602963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82535-3
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author Parrish, Randall R.
Haley, Robert W.
author_facet Parrish, Randall R.
Haley, Robert W.
author_sort Parrish, Randall R.
collection PubMed
description Of the hypothesized causes of Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting approximately 25% of military personnel deployed to the 1991 Gulf War, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) munitions has attracted international concern. Past research has not tested the potential association of GWI with inhaled DU nor used isotope mass spectrometry of sufficient sensitivity to rigorously assess prior DU exposure. We applied a standard biokinetic model to predict the urinary concentration and uranium isotopic ratios for a range of inhalation exposures. We then applied sensitive mass spectrometry capable of detecting the predicted urinary DU to 154 individuals of a population-representative sample of U.S. veterans in whom GWI had been determined by standard case definitions and DU inhalation exposures obtained by medical history. We found no difference in the (238)U/(235)U ratio in veterans meeting the standard case definitions of GWI versus control veterans, no differences by levels of DU inhalation exposure, and no (236)U associated with DU was detected. These findings show that even the highest likely levels of DU inhalation played no role in the development of GWI, leaving exposure to aerosolized organophosphate compounds (pesticides and sarin nerve agent) as the most likely cause(s) of GWI.
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spelling pubmed-78931522021-02-23 Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry Parrish, Randall R. Haley, Robert W. Sci Rep Article Of the hypothesized causes of Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting approximately 25% of military personnel deployed to the 1991 Gulf War, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) munitions has attracted international concern. Past research has not tested the potential association of GWI with inhaled DU nor used isotope mass spectrometry of sufficient sensitivity to rigorously assess prior DU exposure. We applied a standard biokinetic model to predict the urinary concentration and uranium isotopic ratios for a range of inhalation exposures. We then applied sensitive mass spectrometry capable of detecting the predicted urinary DU to 154 individuals of a population-representative sample of U.S. veterans in whom GWI had been determined by standard case definitions and DU inhalation exposures obtained by medical history. We found no difference in the (238)U/(235)U ratio in veterans meeting the standard case definitions of GWI versus control veterans, no differences by levels of DU inhalation exposure, and no (236)U associated with DU was detected. These findings show that even the highest likely levels of DU inhalation played no role in the development of GWI, leaving exposure to aerosolized organophosphate compounds (pesticides and sarin nerve agent) as the most likely cause(s) of GWI. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7893152/ /pubmed/33602963 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82535-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Parrish, Randall R.
Haley, Robert W.
Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title_full Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title_fullStr Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title_full_unstemmed Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title_short Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
title_sort resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to gulf war illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7893152/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33602963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82535-3
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