Lead Poisoning

Key points

• Along with acute intermittent porphyria, lead poisoning should be considered in questions giving a combination of abdominal pain and neurological signs Features
• abdominal pain
• peripheral neuropathy (mainly motor)
• blue lines on gum margin (only 20% of adult patients, very rare in children) Investigations
• the blood lead level is usually used for diagnosis. Levels greater than 10 mcg/dl are considered significant