Low level exposure to cadmium increases the risk of chronic kidney disease: analysis of the NHANES 1999-2006

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 304
• Main Authors: Ferraro, Pietro Manuel, Costanzi, Stefano, Naticchia, Alessandro, Sturniolo, Antonio, Gambaro, Giovanni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 03.06.2010; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cadmium; Cadmium - blood; Cadmium - toxicity; Cadmium - urine; Child; Chronic Disease; Chronic kidney failure; Cross-Sectional Studies; Demographic aspects; Diagnosis; Environmental Exposure - adverse effects; Female; Health aspects; Health surveys; Humans; Kidney Diseases - epidemiology; Male; Methods; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Nutrition Surveys; Odds Ratio; Research article; Risk; United States - epidemiology; Young Adult; United States; USA
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-304

Environmental factors have been associated with the outbreak of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We evaluated the association of Cadmium (Cd) exposure with the risk of CKD in U.S. adults who participated in the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). 5426 subjects > or = 20 years were stratified for values of urinary and blood Cd and a multivariate logistic regression was performed to test the association between blood and urinary Cd, CKD and albuminuria (ALB) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index and smoking habits. Subjects with urinary Cd > 1 mcg/g and subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with ALB (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.23, 2.16; P = 0.001). Subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with both CKD (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.01, 2.17; P = 0.046) and ALB (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10, 1.82; P = 0.007). An interaction effect on ALB was found for high levels of urinary and blood Cd (P = 0.014). Moderately high levels of urinary and blood Cd are associated with a higher proportion of CKD and ALB in the United States population.