The Content of Elements in Rainwater and Its Relation to the Frequency of Hospitalization for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Opole Voivodship, Poland, During 2000-2002.

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BlankThe Content of Elements in Rainwater and Its Relation to the Frequency of

Hospitalization for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in

Opole Voivodship, Poland, During 2000-2002.

R Szygula, A Bunio, and S Tubek

Biol Trace Elem Res, May 9, 2010; .

Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Institute of Technology, Opole,

Poland.

Environmental factors play an essential role in the etiology of diseases of the

hematopoietic system. Such factors include soil and water pollution and the

presence of metals and toxic compounds in the air. Measuring the content of

metallic elements in rainwater has become an accepted procedure for

environmental pollution monitoring. In accordance with the above, it was decided

to study relations between the content of selected elements in rainwater and

hospitalization frequency due to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL, C91 on

ICD-10) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, C92 on ICD-10). It can be assumed

that hospitalization frequency is a reliable indicator of exacerbations of these

diseases. The annual average of hospitalizations due to a given disease during

the years 2000-2002 was correlated with the annual average content of a given

element in rainwater using the Spearman's correlation indicator to describe the

relationship between the element content and the disease that is possibly a

consequence of the element's presence in rainwater. In cases of CLL for all the

subjected population and for men, no statistically significant correlations were

found. For women, statistically significant correlations were found for chromium

(r = 0.66), lead (r = 0.58), copper (r = 0.58), and cadmium (r = 0.51). For CML

in all the studied population significant, negative correlations were found for

magnesium (r = -0.6) and zinc (r = -0.52). In men, significant negative

correlations were seen for magnesium (r = -0.69 and zinc (r = -0.55). No

significant correlations were found in women. These results indicate the need of

taking into account the environmental and gender factors in research connected

with these diseases, which can be probably of help in improvements of therapy

efficiency.

PMID: 20455028