Pulmonary function, smoking habits, and high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) early abnormalities of lung and pleural fibrosis in shipyard workers exposed to asbestos
✍ Scribed by Silvano Neri; Piero Boraschi; Alessandro Antonelli; Fabio Falaschi; Lidio Baschieri
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 738 KB
- Volume
- 30
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-3586
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
To evaluate the presence of asbestos-related pleural and parenchymal abnormalities and their correlation with pulmonary function and smoking habits, 119 asbestos-exposed asymptomadc workers (mean age, 46.2 years; mean duration of asbestos exposure, 8.6 years; mean latency time, 21.6 years) with normal standard P-A chest radiographs were submitted to HRCT, CO-diffusing capacity, and pulmonary function tests.
HRCT scans were normal only in 31 (26%) examined workers; 31 (26%) subjects showed both pleural and parenchymal involvement, and 50 (42%) and seven (6%) had exclusively pleural and parenchymal abnormalities, respectively. Based on CO-diffusing capacity and pulmonary function tests, no significant diference was demonstrated between workers with pleural lesions and subjects with normal pleura; however, lower values of FVC were observed in the nonsmoking workers with parenchymal abnormalities in comparison with nonsmoking subjects with normal parenchyma (78.2 vs. 89.7% of predicted values; p = 0.03 by student's two-tailed t test), and lower values of FEV,/FVC in the smokers with parenchymal lesions with respect to smokers with normal parenchyma (93.7 vs. 100.2% of predicted values; p = 0.005 by student's two-tailed t test).
In conclusion, our results demonstrate that HRCT may detect early parenchymal abnormalities which correlate with exposure to asbestos and respiratory function impairment, including a reduction in obstructive indices in smokers occupationally exposed to asbestos, without any clinically evident disease.