Lead in bone and hypertension.

In a recent study, Hu et al. showed that patients with elevated bone lead as preschoolers had elevated blood pressure in the absence of elevated blood lead later in life. We found in 486 high school patients with normal blood lead levels that those who had elevated lead as preschoolers had 9.3% prevalence of hypertension versus 3.6% in those of normal lead levels as preschoolers. This finding suggests a possible association between chronic accumulation of lead in bone and later adolescent hypertension.