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Correspondence: When an article is eligible for submission of Correspondence, a link to the response form is available within the full-text article. You must be a current subscriber who has activated the online portion of your subscription in order to send a Correspondence. Any reader can read published Correspondence.
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Effects of chronic lead exposure on 1H MRS of hippocampus and frontal lobes in children
- David Mandelbaum (27 July 2005)
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Reply to Author
- Di-Yun Ruan, X-M Meng, D-M Zhu, J-Q Zhu and L Luo (27 July 2005)
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David Mandelbaum, Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Pediatrics, Brown University 110 Lockwood Street, Suite 342 Providence, RI 02903
Send Correspondence to journal:
David_Mandelbaum{at}brown.edu David Mandelbaum
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The ideal of the scientific method is eloquently expressed in Bertolt Brecht’s play “ Galileo” when Galileo tells his apprentice: “My intention is not to prove I was right but to find out whether I was right”. He goes on to say: “And if we find anything which would suit us, that thing we will eye with particular distrust”. [1] In their article, Meng et al report that MRI spectroscopy revealed decreased levels of NAA, creatine + phosphocreatine and choline in a group of six children with a mean IQ score that was 20 points lower than a control group (IQ scores were obtained from three children). [2] The authors acknowledge their failure to control for variables such as education, socioeconomic status and general health. Did they measure head circumference? The title attributes this difference in MRS to lead exposure. Their data do not warrant their conclusion and such presumption may deter the discovery of alternate explanations. The author reports no conflicts of interest. References 1. Brecht, B. Galileo Grove Press, NY 1966, p. 96. 2. Meng X-M, Zhu D-M, Ruan D-Y et al. Effect of chronic lead exposure on 1H MRS of hippocampus and frontal lobes in children Neurology 2005; 64: 1644-1647. |
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Di-Yun Ruan, University of Science and Technology of China School of Life Science, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China, X-M Meng, D-M Zhu, J-Q Zhu and L Luo
Send Correspondence to journal:
Ruandy{at}ustc.edu.cn Di-Yun Ruan, et al.
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We thank Dr. Mandelbaum for his comments. The lead-exposed group included children between 9 and 12 years old with: blood lead level higher than 250 ?g/L; exposure period more than 3 years; clinical illnesses such as anemia and hypoevolutism but no other diseases; abnormal behavior such as hyperkinetic syndrome of inattention/difficulty in studying; no prior treatment for lead poison; third or fourth grade education (because MRI and MRS test require subject
stay still for a long time); and permission of their guardians.
The control group included children between 9 and 13 years old with: blood lead level lower than 100?g/L; third or fourth grade education(education status similar to lead-exposed group); similar socioeconomic status as lead-exposed group; and normal health status with no reported diseases. We think that the higher level blood lead subjects are very difficult to find in China or the US. This study and the data are interesting and the method employed was scientific. The authors report no conflicts of interest References 1. Bottomley PA. Spatial localization in NMR spectroscopy in vivo. Ann NY Acad Sci . 1987; 508: 333–348. 2. Ordridge RJ, Bendall MR, Gordon RE, Connelly A. Volume selection for in vivo biological spectroscopy. In: Govil K, Saran T. Magnetic resonance in biology and medicine. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill, 1985:387. 3. Trope I, Lopez-Villegas D, Lenkinski RE, Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy of regional brain structure in a 10-year-old boy with elevated blood lead levels. Pediatrics. 1998;101:e7. Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest |
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