5-year-old male brought to casualty by his mother because of episode of sudden vomiting. He has been behaving strangely according to mother. Laboratory findings showed microcytic hypochromic anemia with the above finding. The most probable poisoning is:

Ans. (B). Chronic lead poisoningThe above blood picture shows basophilic stippling of RBCs.Basophilic stippling (dots in the red blood cells) is due to the inhibition of 5 pyrimidine nucleotidase enzyme resulting in aggregation of ribosomes.Other findings in blood: Microcytic hypochromic anemia, anisocytosis, poikilocytosisBasophilic stippling is also seen in megaloblastic anemia.