European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction:
Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in children generally affected the child's normal function. Lead poisoning has many symptoms, which is one of the most prominent symptoms of abdominal pain, besides, in our country, various factors may lead children to exposure to lead. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of lead poisoning in children with CAP by measuring the level of blood to give a guide to a pediatrician to propose this diagnosis in the early stages of their evaluations.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was all children referred to the clinic with chronic abdominal pain. Informed consent was obtained from their parents, and then a self-designed checklist containing demographic information and variables was given to the parents by the project. Blood samples were also taken from the patients to determine the level of lead in the blood of the patients.
Results:
93 children aged 1-15 years with chronic abdominal pain were referred to the pediatric GI referral clinic the results showed that 18(19.4%) had lead contamination, 2(2.2%) had lead poisoning and the only clinical symptoms such as bone pain (p-value = 0.013), aggression (p-value = 0.036), and anemia (p-value = 0.004) were significantly related to lead contamination.  Fifteen (83%) of children with chronic abdominal pain had opium addicted (p-value = 0.02).
Conclusion:
Due to the high level of lead contamination in Kerman city, the risk of lead poisoning increases the future generation .Therefore, extensive investigations should be performed to find possible sources of lead contamination. An attempt to resolve these problems is indispensable.