Hi Deniz, I'd be happy to talk with you to see if we can make something happen. [email protected]

Working with such a large sample size may be laborious but will help to reduce errors. I think expertise in statistical evaluation will provide clues in prognosis and diagnosis.  Bivariate correlation,  regression analysis,  ANOVA and factor analysis are useful tools in this wise. It may not essentially require expertise in cadmium evaluation. Perhaps with more information,  one can understand the type of collaboration that you seek. Please be at liberty to furnish me with more details.

Dear Deniz

There was a case locally in the local, if not national newspapers, fears of cadmium poisoning, when I was in my youth years, 30 years back, at Shipham, (in the Mendip Hills), (North) Somerset, England, UK.

Prof Dave Sherman, in his ongoing great, wide sorption work, with majoring on adsorption modelling of heavy metals, ...for whom I work... , has recently had a student working on Cd adsorption, .... with field studies at Shipham, part of the work, I believe.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cadmium+scare+mendip+hills&rlz=1C1AVNE_enGB629GB629&oq=cadmium+scare+mendip+hills&aqs=chrome..69i57.10477j1j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8

Perhaps this might be a helpful further line for your work's help.

Good regards

David Moore

Fyodor: quick side note... my main focus is Kawasaki disease research

Recently, another team of researchers found heavy yeast pollution originating in soil from Manchuria is linked to KD cases in Japan (Rodo et al., 2014)

I remember reading in Silent Spring that certain pesticides, metals, other environmental insults can disturb soil mechanics and lead to yeast overgrowth in soil (in addition to soil exhaustion, other factors)

In our own upcoming paper that will hopefully be published soon, we also found significant associations between KD risk and blood Hg levels, Se-to-Hg levels, and detectable blood Cd

If you know anything about that, I would also be highly appreciated. Either way, something interesting for you to look into so your main focus is soil chemistry. Candida albicans induces KD in animal model and I think there are multiple environmental triggers that include pollutants and infectious agents -- maybe working in tandem to induce KD

Thank you for all your responses... I will PM or email you very soon within the week

Have just found this Deniz

British Medical Journal ..... 

http://oem.bmj.com/content/57/9/647.full

regards

good wishes

David Moore.

Your demographic associations with Cd ...will likely be where the pH of the soil is lower and therefore the Cd, even much more in solution, the soil solution, or into water supplies...yes?

And further the differing situs in the soil solution in which Cd is more or less taken up by the crops...etc.

Reference to this text you might find helpful, if you have not made reference already....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Metals-Society-Environment-Bioavailability-Environmental/dp/1402027400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443137077&sr=1-1&keywords=landner+nickel

The pH in soils at Shipham rarely if ever much falls to levels where it will be desorbed off the minerals eg goethite, to which it is bound, seems to be why it, Cd, has never been linked to health troubles there, I believe.

Well, for the KD study, it seems to be related to diet and not soil with regards to Hg and Cd. However, we only looked at blood values and haven't examined potential exposure sources, yet

Rice and large predatory seafood contain high amounts of Cd, while methylmercury is also a huge problem in large predatory fish such as tuna

The biggest issue facing soil contamination in China is with Cd and Hg... but I am currently more interested in how these metals impact soil chemistry and could lead to yeast overgrowth in soil -- which appears to be significantly associated with KD

Since East Asians are disproportionately affected by KD risk (10 to 20 times higher rates -- even when residing in the West), Cd and Hg in rice and seafood seem to be the most plausible explanation but I certainly wouldn't rule out soil, dust (such as Asian dust storms), water, or ambient air pollution

They all add up, but rice and seafood in our minds seem to be the most obvious explanation

Definitely needs to be explored before any conclusion can be reasonably reached

However, the Cd study at hand that we are trying to recruit collaborators for is just for the general US population of young children and not related to any investigation related to KD

I was mentioning a separate study

Anyways, I'm rambling about KD and my other studies as usual because I'm an excitable nerd haha

I will redirect you to a more specific question we had on this matter to see if any of you could assist us or further collaborate

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_anyone_aware_of_cadmium_dose_exposure_estimations_for_children_in_the_US

I will like to collaborate in this study.Thanks

We were wanting to look at Zn and Fe especially... but that data only appears to start at age 3 or age 6

This is unfortunate as we really wanted to focus our investigation on earlier childhood. Samples couldn't be retrieved from children

There is urine data but it only starts at a later age... we always try to couple the data -- especially with exposure data -- since it helps paint a better picture of what is happening in the body with regards to toxicokinetics since a single biomarker can be fairly unreliable by itself in an individual (why such a large sample is highly preferred because of how erratic and misleading the values can be at times)

We've been using a lot of blood Hg data but it seems to mostly reflect recent exposure and particularly fish consumption as others have reported

Yes, hair can certainly be a good addition as it more demonstrates long-term exposure and is good with coupling data you have for individual cumulative doses/exposures

Then you can do a toxicokinetic determination to see if the individuals are properly detoxifying/excreting Hg or other toxic metals or if they are bioaccumulating in some sense

Preferably, you'd couple this with analysis of blood-urine Hg ratios to see how excretion appears to be happening in the short-term and then compare it to your values of long-term exposure determinations using hair Hg and known cumulative exposure

This is still typically only reliable in large samples as Hg levels remain highly variable in a case-by-case basis and even on various days when the sample is taken. Many reported infantile acrodynia patients with Hg levels demonstrate this apparent situation... the values vary greatly on even a day-by-day basis and including with chelation therapy when used

Given the variability, I think it is important to combine determinations of biomarkers from blood, urine, hair samples and also couple these with determinations of cumulative doses/exposure

Other pictures are often very incomplete and seem to contribute to false positives or false negatives upon further replication of the original studies

Even in genetics, we are often leaving epigenetic investigations out of the picture even though there would be no genetic translation into proteins and actual function by any gene without epigenetic regulation pathways

I would like to participate in the study. Please contact me. Thanks

I would ilke to participate in this study.  I think  doping some biomarkers in blood and urine are valuable. 

I would like to join the team, contact me.

Thank you all! I will contact you soon once my workload and classes lighten up a little once winter actually starts up in a month's time