RELATIONS OF BONE AND BLOOD LEAD TO COGNITIVE FUNCTION - THE VA NORMATIVE AGING STUDY

The relationship between performance on cognitive tasks and circulatin g levels of lead in blood and accumulated levels of lead in bone was e xamined in 141 middle-aged and elderly men from a longitudinal study o f aging. The mean (SD) blood lead level was low [5.5 (3.5) mu g/dl], a nd mean patella and tibia lead levels were 31.7 (19.2) and 22.5 (12.2) mu g/g bone mineral, respectively. Cognitive tests measured attention , perceptual speed, memory, language, and spatial copying. Regression models, adjusted for age and education, demonstrated that men with hig her levels of blood lead recalled and defined fewer words, identified fewer line-drawn objects, and required more time to attain the same le vel of accuracy on a perceptual comparison test as men with the lowest level of blood lead. Men with higher levels of blood and bone (tibia) lead copied spatial figures less accurately; men with higher levels o f bone (tibia) lead had slower responses for pattern memory. These fin dings suggest that low levels of lead contribute to impairments in cog nitive function among elderly men. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.