[Renal disease and trace elements].

Correlation between renal disease and trace elements includes following two types; 1) Renal failure due to excess of trace element intake into the body, such as itai-itai disease or heavy metal intoxication. 2) Disturbances of trace elements in patients with chronic renal failure, such as aluminum dementia and aluminum-related bone disease. Itai-itai disease occurred by water pollution with cadmium. Cadmium causes Fanconi syndrome in the kidney and osteomalasia in person, especially in old women, who were living near the riverside. Recently, we have shown that an itai-itai disease model can be made using rats by long-term intravenous injection of cadmium chloride. In patients with chronic renal failure, aluminum dementia and aluminum related bone disease were reported. However, aluminum dementia has disappeared by using reverse osmosis system for making dialysate. Fluoride should be one of ions which must be paid attention, because excess of fluoride cause mottled tooth and osteosclerosis. It may be dangerous to add fluoride into tap water system for the purpose of preventing decayed tooth, because fluoride retention in the serum may occur in patients with chronic renal failure.