Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0010200 (cough)
 23,843 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Inhalation of dusts is an important cause of interstitial lung disease in the tropical countries such as India. While dusts of organic origin, such as the cotton dust causing byssinosis, generally cause bronchial or bronchiolar involvement and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, inorganic metallic dusts cause progressive pulmonary fibrosis. Silicosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, and asbestosis are the three most commonly recognized forms of pneumoconiotic pulmonary fibrosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis is an important complication seen in up to 50% of patients of silicosis in some reports from India. The presentation is generally chronic, although acute and accelerated forms of silicosis are known when the exposures are heavy. Breathlessness, dry cough, and general constitutional symptoms are commonly seen. Patients with silicotuberculosis or other forms of infection may also have significant expectoration, hemoptysis, fever, and rapid progression. Respiratory failure and chronic cor pulmonale occur in the later stages. The diagnosis is easily established if the occupational history is available. Dense nodular opacities on chest roentgenograms, which may be large in patients with massive pulmonary fibrosis, are characteristic. Emphysematous changes generally appear in advanced stages or in patients who smoke. Bronchoalveolar lavage and/or lung biopsy may occasionally be required to establish or exclude other causes of interstitial lung disease. Treatment is largely palliative, although a variety of drugs including corticosteroids and procedures such as whole lung lavage have been tried. None of these methods has yet been found successful in the treatment. Preventive safety steps, including removal of the patient from the site of exposure, are the only effective strategies to control disease progression.
 ...
PMID:Dust-induced interstitial lung disease in the tropics. 1158 75

A 68-year-old man who had worked as a stone mason for more than 50 years with a heavy smoking history consulted our clinic with symptoms of cough, low grade fever, weightloss, malaise and a single expectoration of hemo-sputum. He had been diagnosed as silicosis by the mass survey 5 years ago based on nodular shadows with egg-shell calcification in hilar lymphnodes on his chest radiography, and has received chest radiographic examination once a year. As the author was not so familiar with the radiographic features of silicotuberculosis, it was difficult to interprete ill-defined contour of silicotic nodules accompanied by patchy opacities formation in right midlung field and silicotic conglomeration accompanied by an ischemic cavity in the left basal segments. A definitive diagnosis could not be established until 10 months later when a second attack of exacerbation of silicotuberculosis occurred showing multiple thin walled fresh tuberculous cavities on the chest radiography with positive smear and culture. Among multiple tuberculous cavities, there was a cirrhotic-walled cavity caused by endogenous reactivation of a quiescent tuberculous lesion on the right apex. This lesion was considered to be the source of dissemination of this case. Finally, it took about two and a half years before establishing the diagnosis in this case because of a series of doctors delays. He was treated successfully with antituberculous drugs for one and a half years including one year rifampicin medication. The clinico-pathological findings of silicotic conglomeration in the left basal segments were discussed based on the findings of transbronchial biopsy from occluded B10 and chest radiographic findings, and it was revealed that silicotic conglomeration might consist of inflammatory granulation combined with granulomatous tubercle, but not a fibrous lesion.
 ...
PMID:[A case of silicotuberculosis with difficulty in its diagnosis]. 1652 7