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Lead, Elevated Blood Levels, Adult (≥16 Years)
2010 Case Definition

Lead, Elevated Blood Levels, Adult (≥16 Years)
2010 Case Definition
NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Subtype(s)

  • Lead, elevated blood levels
  • Lead, elevated blood levels, children (<16 Years)

Laboratory Criteria For Diagnosis

An adult blood lead level that should be maintained under surveillance by the National Public Health Surveillance System (NPHSS) is defined as an adult (≥16 years) with a venous (or comparable) blood lead concentration ≥10 µg/dL (0.48 µmol/L) of whole blood

Subtype(s) Case Definition

Case Classification

Confirmed

A one venous (or comparable) blood specimen with elevated lead concentration.

Comments

Laboratories should report any blood lead level to public health authorities. Health care providers should report elevated blood lead levels.

Related Case Definition(s)

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National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

NNDSS receives and shares case data from state, local, and territorial health departments to help public health monitor, control, and prevent serious diseases.

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