Evaluation of blood cholinesterase activities as a secreening test for pesticide intoxication.

Activities of blood cholinesterases were evaluated to assess the health condition of 65 farmers consisting of 33 male and 32 female. All of the blood cholinesterases; whole blood cholinesterase, erythrocyte to cholinesterase and plasuma cholinesterase showed higher activity in winter than in summer. Farmers exposed frequenthy to pesticide showed slightly higher activities of blood cholinesterases than non-exposed farmers . It, however, is not statistically significant. Whole blood cholinesterase activity had the highest sensitivity and predictive value negative, while erythrocyte cholinesterase activity exhibited the highest specificity and predictive value negative. However both of then did not apper to be significant. These results did not indicate the useful ness of evaluating blood cholinesterase activities as the screening test for pesticide exposure.