Determinación de niveles basales de colinesterasa en jornaleros agrícolas.

Introduction: Organophosphates and carbamates are the most used pesticides. Principal health effects are produced by cholinesterase inhibition. Nevertheless basal concentration of the enzyme is rarely measured. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 463 migrant agricultural workers in Mexico. Cholinesterase level was measured with Magnotti field method and a questionnaire was applied. Exclusion criteria were pesticide exposure in last two months and digestive tract hemorrhage in previous six months. T test for media differences between two groups, and varianza and Tukey tests for several groups were used. Results: Average level of cholinesterase was 4.22 U/mL ± .77; 12.9 g/dL ± 1.82 for hemoglobin, and 33.1 U/g ± 6.79 for hemoglobin adjusted cholinesterase. Cholinesterase and hemoglobin were higher for men than for women, p = 0.000, but adjusted cholinesterase was higher for women p = 0.005. Anemia was detected in 55% of women, 51% of children and 15% of men. Varianza and Tukey analysis showed significant differences in biological markers according with age, p = 0.03 and origin place of workers p = 0.001. Conclusions: Basal cholinesterase levels in these workers were higher than those reported by Magnotti method. Also is important the high prevalence of anaemia. Because of this, is recommendable to carry out measures of hemoglobin adjusted cholinesterase in pesticide exposed workers. Due to the frequent impossibility to carry out basal determination in Mexican workers and considering that studied population has similar characteristics with total migrant workers, this study may be used as a referent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]