College of Public Health, Nanchang University, People's Republic of China.
Environ Geochem Health. 2011 Oct;33(5):495-501. doi: 10.1007/s10653-010-9366-y. Epub 2010 Nov 30.
Now, there is a decreasing trend for the prevalence rate of Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD) in most parts of China, but the disease is still active and severe in the Tibetan Plateau for some reason. To further explore the role of selenium in the occurrence of KBD, We collected samples including drinking water, cultivated topsoil, Highland Barley grains, and tsamba in Rangtang County and Aba County, Sichuan Province and determined concentrations of selenium by Hydride Generation Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry. Levels of selenium in the environment were analyzed in detail. Selenium in the soil-plant-food system and their relationship with prevalence rate of KBD were also discussed. The results indicate: (a) the levels of environmental selenium are very low and the study area belongs to a selenium-deficient ecological landscape; (b) the KBD becomes much more severe with decreasing environmental selenium under the selenium-deficient condition. Namely, the lower the environmental selenium is, the more severe the disease is; (c) soil selenium deficiency plays a critical role for the prevalence of local KBD, and more factors inducing selenium deficiency should be more concerned in the future.
目前，中国大部分地区的大骨节病（KBD）患病率呈下降趋势，但由于某种原因，该病在青藏高原仍很活跃且严重。为了进一步探讨硒在大骨节病发生中的作用，我们采集了四川省壤塘县和阿坝县的饮用水、耕作表土、青稞和糌粑样品，采用氢化物发生原子荧光光谱法测定硒含量。详细分析了环境硒水平，讨论了土壤-植物-食物系统中的硒及其与大骨节病患病率的关系。结果表明：（a）环境硒水平很低，研究区属于硒缺乏生态景观；（b）在硒缺乏条件下，环境硒降低，大骨节病变得更加严重。即环境硒越低，疾病越严重；（c）土壤硒缺乏对当地大骨节病的流行起着关键作用，今后应更加关注其他导致硒缺乏的因素。
