Abstract
Measurement of postural equilibrium has been employed as an indirect indicator of functional status of the nervous systems of 109 children (mean age: 5.8 ± 0.78 years) from the Cincinnati Lead Program Project. The geometric mean blood lead for the first five years of life (PbB05) was 11.9 ± 1.5 μg/dL. Postural sway associated with upright balance was noninvasively quantitated with a microprocessor-based force platform and four tasks performed for 30 sec each by the subjects. A covariate-adjusted multiple regression analysis showed statistically significant associations between PbB05 and the postural sway for the task requiring primarily vestibular and/or proprioceptive systems input, implying potential functional impairment. These findings raised several new issues which are addressed here: (1) A dynamic task has been developed to further test the effect of perturbing those afferents' functional capabilities. (2) A method has been developed to quantitate the stability boundary of each subject to better characterize the limits of functionally-safe postural sway. (3) There is a need to perform the postural sway in a shorter duration than 30 sec so that children younger than five years of age can be tested for early identification of Pb-induced functional impairment of postural equilibrium.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 179-190 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | NeuroToxicology |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 2-3 |
State | Published - 1993 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Children
- Force Platform
- Lead Exposure
- Postural Balance
- Stability Boundary
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
- Toxicology