Trace metals and coronary heart disease risk indicators in 152 elderly men (the Zutphen Study).

Information about trace metals and coronary heart disease risk indicators was collected in 1977 among 152 men aged 57-76 years in the town of Zutphen, the Netherlands. Serum zinc, serum copper, blood cadmium, and blood lead were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry and serum lithium by flame emission spectrometry. After uni- and multivariate regression analysis, the following statistically significant relations were found: serum zinc was inversely related to resting heart rate; serum copper was positively related to cigarette smoking and inversely to high density lipoprotein cholesterol; blood cadmium was strongly positively related to cigarette smoking and inversely to Quetelet index; the positive relation between blood lead and cigarette smoking was of borderline significance; and blood lead was related to blood pressure, with the relation being stronger for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure.