Folate Deficiency, Hyperhomocysteinemia, Low Urinary Creatinine, and Hypomethylation of Leukocyte DNA Are Risk Factors for Arsenic-Induced Skin Lesions

Table 2

ORs (95% CIs) for predictors of skin lesions, derived from logistic models with and without control for other factors.

Predictor	Unadjusted OR (95% CI) (n = 274 pairs)	Adjusted OR (95% CI) (n = 272 pairs)
Low B₁₂ (B₁₂< 151 pmol/L) ^a	1.4 (0.9–2.2)	1.5 (0.9–1.6)^b
Low folate (folate < 9 μmol/L)^c	1.7 (1.1–2.6)^**	1.8 (1.1–2.9)^b,^*
Hyperhomocysterinemia	1.7 (1.1–2.4)^**	1.7 (1.1–2.6)^b,^*
Folate and homocysteinemia combined^c
Low homocysteine/high folate	1.0	1.0^d
Low homocysteine/low folate	1.7 (1.0–2.9)^*	2.0 (1.1–3.5)^*
High homocysteine/high folate	1.7 (0.8–3.4)	2.4 (1.1–5.4)^*
High homocysteine/low folate	2.0 (1.2–3.3)^**	2.3 (1.3–3.9)^**
DNA hypomethylation (DPM > median)	1.7 (1.1–2.5)^*	1.8 (1.2–2.8)^b,^**
DNA methylation by tertiles (DPM/μg DNA)
1st tertile (30,318–56,459)	1.00	1.00^b
2nd tertile (56,460–61,689)	1.6 (1.0–2.4)^*	1.6 (1.0–2.6)^*
3rd tertile (61,690–95,734)	1.4 (0.9–2.3)	1.5 (0.9–2.5)
Urinary creatinine (fold increase)	0.8 (0.7–1.0)^*	0.7 (0.5–0.8)^c,^#
Urinary creatinine by quartiles
4.5–29	1.00	1.00^d
29.1–52.3	1.0 (0.6–1.7)	0.7 (0.4–1.3)
52.4–89.9	0.7 (0.4–1.1)	0.4 (0.2–0.8)^**
90.0–376	0.6 (0.4–1.0)^*	0.4 (0.2–0.7)^**
Betel nut use	1.5 (1.1–2.2)^*	1.5 (1.0–2.2)^e,^*

^aExcluding 44 pairs with unknown plasma B₁₂.

^bExcluding 41 pairs with unknown plasma folate.

^cControlled for age, urinary As and creatinine, and betel nut use.

^dControlled for age, urinary As, and betel nut use.

^eControlled for age, urinary As, and urinary creatinine.

^*p ≤ 0.05;

^**p < 0.01;

^#p < 0.001.