Elevated levels of blood lead in alcoholic liver disease

Summary In order to investigate the effect of alcohol intake on the activity of erythrocyte aminolevulinate dehydratase (ALA-D), serum alcohol concentration and ALA-D activity was determined in 4 groups of patients. Group I: 18 chronic alcoholics (active phase). Group II: 14 chronic alcoholics (inactive phase). Group III: 13 chronic alcoholics suffering from a biopsy verified liver cirrhosis. Group IV: 16 non-alcoholic patients with biopsy verified liver cirrhosis. Blood lead concentration was determined in patients from group III and IV.ALA-D values were found to be within the normal range in patients from group I, II and IV. 8 patients from group III had abnormally low ALA-D values and 4 of these had elevated blood lead values. Data from group III and IV yields a significant (P < 0.001) negative correlation between blood lead and ALA-D values. No correlation could be demonstrated between serum alcohol and ALA-D values from group I and III.It is suggested that patients suffering from liver cirrhosis may accumulate lead at an increased rate and that alcohol intake in these patients may cause a release of lead from the liver to the blood and thereby a depression of ALA-D activity.