| Title |
Toxicological Status of Children with Autism vs. Neurotypical Children and the Association with Autism Severity
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Biological Trace Element Research, November 2012
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s12011-012-9551-1 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
James B. Adams, Tapan Audhya, Sharon McDonough-Means, Robert A. Rubin, David Quig, Elizabeth Geis, Eva Gehn, Melissa Loresto, Jessica Mitchell, Sharon Atwood, Suzanne Barnhouse, Wondra Lee |
| Abstract |
This study investigates both the level of toxic metals in children with autism and the possible association of those toxic metals with autism severity. This study involved 55 children with autism ages 5-16 years compared to 44 controls with similar age and gender. The study included measurements of toxic metals in whole blood, red blood cells (RBC), and urine. The autism group had higher levels of lead in RBC (+41 %, p = 0.002) and higher urinary levels of lead (+74 %, p = 0.02), thallium (+77 %, p = 0.0001), tin (+115 %, p = 0.01), and tungsten (+44 %, p = 0.00005). However, the autism group had slightly lower levels of cadmium in whole blood (-19 %, p = 0.003). A stepwise, multiple linear regression analysis found a strong association of levels of toxic metals with variation in the degree of severity of autism for all the severity scales (adjusted R(2) of 0.38-0.47, p < 0.0003). Cadmium (whole blood) and mercury (whole blood and RBC) were the most consistently significant variables. Overall, children with autism have higher average levels of several toxic metals, and levels of several toxic metals are strongly associated with variations in the severity of autism for all three of the autism severity scales investigated. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 27 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 11 | 41% |
| Canada | 4 | 15% |
| Gibraltar | 1 | 4% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 4% |
| New Zealand | 1 | 4% |
| Unknown | 9 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 25 | 93% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 4% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 4% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 167 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 3 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Ireland | 1 | <1% |
| Egypt | 1 | <1% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 159 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 25 | 15% |
| Student > Bachelor | 23 | 14% |
| Researcher | 21 | 13% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 15 | 9% |
| Other | 14 | 8% |
| Other | 42 | 25% |
| Unknown | 27 | 16% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 47 | 28% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 20 | 12% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 12 | 7% |
| Psychology | 11 | 7% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 8 | 5% |
| Other | 30 | 18% |
| Unknown | 39 | 23% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 120. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 December 2023.
All research outputs
#353,657
of 25,654,806 outputs
Outputs from Biological Trace Element Research
#13
of 2,356 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,263
of 287,374 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Biological Trace Element Research
#1
of 24 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,654,806 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,356 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 287,374 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 24 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.