Suleman Khan Afridi, Muhammad Hammad Khan, Syed Hasnain Ahmad, Farhat Rehana Malik.
Prevalence of Blood Lead Levels (BLLs) in children visiting tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar from February to April 2015: A pilot study.
J Pak Med Assoc Jan ;66(10):1350-4.

Objective: To determine blood lead level in young children visiting tertiary care hospitals. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2015 at Khyber Teaching Hospital, Kuwait Teaching Hospital and Siffat Ghayoor Memorial Children's Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan, and comprised children aged1-10 years. Purposive sampling technique (non-probability) was used. SPSS 17 was used for data analysis. Charts were made in Microsoft Excel 2007. Results: Of the 100 children in the study, 79(79%) had lead present in their blood, while 21(21%) had no traces whatsoever. Of those who had lead in their blood, 5(6%) showed blood lead level of above 1 mg/dL. The overall mean blood lead level was 0.344± 0.05 mg/dL. There was significance association between lead level and the residential areas of participants (p<0.05). Conclusion: Lead was found in the blood of children aged 1-10 years and was significantly related to the place of residence. Age and gender had no relation with blood lead levels.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com