Toxicological Status of Children with Autism vs. Neurotypical Children and the Association with Autism Severity

This study investigates both the level of toxic metals in children with autism and the possible association of those toxic metals with autism severity. This study involved 55 children with autism ages 5–16 years compared to 44 controls with similar age and gender. The study included measurements of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biological trace element research 2013-02, Vol.151 (2), p.171-180
Main Authors: Adams, James B, Audhya, Tapan, McDonough-Means, Sharon, Rubin, Robert A, Quig, David, Geis, Elizabeth, Gehn, Eva, Loresto, Melissa, Mitchell, Jessica, Atwood, Sharon, Barnhouse, Suzanne, Lee, Wondra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Arsenic - blood
Arsenic - urine
Autism
Autistic Disorder - blood
Autistic Disorder - pathology
Autistic Disorder - urine
Biochemistry
Biomarkers - blood
Biomarkers - urine
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biotechnology
Cadmium
Cadmium - blood
Cadmium - urine
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child, Preschool
children
erythrocytes
Erythrocytes - chemistry
Female
gender
Heavy metals
Humans
Lead
Lead - blood
Lead - urine
Life Sciences
Limit of Detection
Linear Models
Male
Mercury
Metals
Neurodegeneration
Nutrition
Oncology
Regression analysis
Severity of Illness Index
Thallium
Thallium - urine
tin
Tin - urine
Toxicity
Tungsten
Tungsten - urine
urine
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Summary:This study investigates both the level of toxic metals in children with autism and the possible association of those toxic metals with autism severity. This study involved 55 children with autism ages 5–16 years compared to 44 controls with similar age and gender. The study included measurements of toxic metals in whole blood, red blood cells (RBC), and urine. The autism group had higher levels of lead in RBC (+41 %, p = 0.002) and higher urinary levels of lead (+74 %, p = 0.02), thallium (+77 %, p = 0.0001), tin (+115 %, p = 0.01), and tungsten (+44 %, p = 0.00005). However, the autism group had slightly lower levels of cadmium in whole blood (−19 %, p = 0.003). A stepwise, multiple linear regression analysis found a strong association of levels of toxic metals with variation in the degree of severity of autism for all the severity scales (adjusted R ² of 0.38–0.47, p 
ISSN:0163-4984
1559-0720
DOI:10.1007/s12011-012-9551-1