SCIENTIFIC STUDIES & BIOMEDICAL LITERATURE

Parenteral feedings containing more than 4 to 5 μg/kg/d of aluminum have been shown to result in neurodevelopmental delay in preterm infants.1 However, an infant at the 2-month checkup receives multiple aluminum-containing vaccines that in combination may have as high as 1225 μg of intramuscular aluminum; this is a much higher intramuscular aluminum dose than the safely recommended intravenous aluminum dose.2 Our first objective was to measure prevaccine and postvaccine levels of aluminum in preterm infants, a population at higher risk of aluminum neurotoxic effects. Our second objective was to measure prevaccine and postvaccine levels of essential elements (EE). Inflammation from trauma can cause declines in serum levels of specific EE such as zinc and selenium3-5; there may be similar EE perturbations secondary to vaccination-induced inflammation.