Levels of blood and urine chemicals associated with longer duration of having arsenicosis in Bangladesh

Abstract

Arsenicosis is presently one of the significant public health problems in Bangladesh. Employing household screening of over 3.6 million people living in 6 arsenic-affected Upzilas of Bangladesh, 1,503 arsenicosis patients were identified at first and then blood and urine were collected from some of them and analyzed through laboratory techniques. As the relation between blood and urine chemicals with duration of having arsenicosis (DHA) is not clear, this study presented all findings by shorter versus longer DHA. Complications namely chronic bronchitis, conjunctivitis/congestions, weakness, and wasting were common, with relatively higher rates in longer group. Logistic regression analysis – adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking, duration of drinking tube-well water, and whether any arsenicosis patients were in the family – indicated higher odds ratio (OR) of longer DHA (LDHA) in 3rd tertile with respect to GOT (OR = 2.12; 95%CI: 1.09 – 4.13), and blood glucose (OR = 2.00; 95%CI: 1.07 – 3.72) than 1st tertile. The OR of LDHA was significantly lower (OR = 0.48; 95%CI: 0.25 – 0.93) in 3rd tertile for triglycerides compared with 1st tertile. Albumin/globulin (A/G) ratio of 2nd tertile showed significantly lower OR of LDHA (OR = 0.51; 95%CI: 0.28 – 0.95) than 1st tertile. Further epidemiological investigations based on a large sample, through cohort or case – control studies, may be useful for validating and generalizing the results in Bangladesh.

Keywords:

• Arsenic
• arsenicosis
• skin lesion
• blood
• urine
• cross-sectional study
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to UNICEF-Bangladesh for providing us the report along with data set submitted by the Dhaka Community Hospital. We are also thankful to those who were involved with the data collection.