Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0032273 (pneumoconiosis)
 1,578 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Preliminary pathological and mineralogical studies are reported on seventy-four sets of lungs from British coal miners who have been employed at the collieries included in the National Coal Boards's Pneumoconiosis Field Research. The degree of lung damage was considered in relation to the lung dust content and to the known dust exposures of the men concerned. Lungs were classified as having soft macules, fibrotic nodules or PMF. Those with soft macules had the lowest dust content but there was no significant difference between the dust contents of the lungs with fibrotic lesions and those with PMF. The percentage of non-coal minerals in the lung dust appeared to increase with the pathological classification from soft macules to PMF, and comparisons with the exposure data indicated a preferential retention of non-coal minerals, and especially of quartz, in the cases with the more severe lesions. Histological examination of the lesions showed the packing of dust was less close and the cellular response more vigorous with the lungs with the highest quartz content.
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PMID:The effect of quartz and other non-coal dusts in coalworkers' pneumoconiosis. Part II. Lung autopsy study. 19 68

In two mines, "A"--in Lower Silesia with low, inclined coal seam and lesser degree of output mechanization and "B"--in the Silesia-Dabrowa Basin with high coal seams and a great degree of output mechanization), work conditions were examined (dust concentration, chemical composition of dust, and microclimate) and medical examinations of underground miners were done. The examinations involved: mine "A"--2094 miners, mine "B"--1846 miners. The two examined populations were almost identical as regards age and length of employment. The number of miners working in bad conditions in the "A" mine was twice as great as that of miners working in bad conditions in the "B" mine. In dust collected on work--stands in the "A" mine the amount of copper, chromium and vanadium was 3 times that in the "B" mine and in the "A" mine approximately 40% more nickel was found in the dust than in the "B" mine. Average dust concentration on work stands was 10 times greater in the "B" mine than in the "A" mine. The rate of pneumoconiosis was on average 3.7% in both populations, in the "A" mine--6.2% and in the "B" mine--0.8%. In currently working miners no nodular changes, like PMF, were found. The rate of pneumoconiosis significantly varied with the length of employment. In 71.7% miners changes in EKG were found, in the "B" mine the number of those with changes being about 10% greater than in those in the "A" mine. In miners from the "A" mine, mostly changes in conduction (17.1%) were found; in the "B" mine these changes were twice less frequent.
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PMID:[Respiratory tract diseases in coal miners. I. Pneumoconiosis]. 51 72

General mortality in approximately 25 000 British coalminers over 22 year periods ending in 1980 was 13% lower on average than in English and Welsh men in the same regions of Britain. There were significant within region variations between collieries, and standardised mortality ratios increased during the later years of the follow up, approaching or slightly exceeding 100 in most of the 20 coalmines studied. Age specific comparisons of 22 year survival rates were made in subgroups. Relative risks of death from all non-violent causes for men with the earliest stage of progressive massive fibrosis (PMF category A), compared with risks in miners with no pneumoconiosis (category O), ranged from 1.2 in those aged 55-64 initially to 3.5 for those aged 25-34. Mortality in miners with higher categories of PMF (B or C) was even more severe. Survival rates in men with category 1 simple pneumoconiosis were about 2% to 3% lower than in miners with radiographs classified as category O, but there was no consistent evidence of an increase in mortality with increasing category of simple pneumoconiosis. Mortality from all non-violent causes increased systematically with increases in estimates of exposure to dust before the start of the follow up. That gradient was attributable primarily to deaths certified as due to pneumoconiosis and those recorded as due to bronchitis and emphysema (p less than 0.001). There was some evidence of a dust related increase in deaths from cancers of the digestive system (p approximately equal to 0.05), but none of an association between exposure to coalmine dust and lung cancer. Lung cancer mortality, assessed over 17 year periods, was about 5.5 times higher in smokers than in life long non-smokers. Smokers with no pneumoconiosis had slightly higher lung cancer death rates than smokers with pneumoconiosis. We conclude that miners exposed to excessive amounts of respirable coalmine dust are at increased risk of premature death, either from progressive massive fibrosis or from chronic bronchitis or emphysema.
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PMID:Dust exposure, pneumoconiosis, and mortality of coalminers. 406 15

The lungs of 450 coal miners who had been studied previously in a long-term epidemiologic project at 24 British mines have been examined post-mortem for signs of dust-related fibrosis and emphysema. Reliable estimates of cumulative (working-life) exposures to respirable mine dust were available for 342 of the men. The relative frequency of emphysema increased with age at death, and both panacinar and centriacinar emphysema occurred more frequently in smokers than in nonsmokers. The proportion of subjects with any emphysema was 47% in 92 men with no palpable dust lesions, 65% in 183 with small, simple pneumoconiotic lesions, and 83% in 175 miners with massive fibrosis (PMF). The chance of finding centriacinar emphysema in those with PMF increased significantly with increasing exposure to coal dust in life (p less than 0.025). A similar but less convincing relationship was found in those with simple pneumoconiosis (p less than 0.11), but in both groups, increasing amounts of ash with a given exposure to coal reduced the probability of finding centriacinar emphysema. The occurrence of centriacinar emphysema was associated also with increasing amounts of dust retained in the lungs. A preliminary exploration of this association did not support the hypothesis that emphysematous lungs clear dust less efficiently. We conclude that the association observed between exposure to respirable coal dust and emphysema in coal miners indicates a causal relationship. However, because it can be demonstrated only for men whose lungs show some dust-related fibrosis, it is suggested that the extent and nature of such fibrosis may be a crucial factor in determining the presence of centriacinar emphysema.
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PMID:Emphysema and dust exposure in a group of coal workers. 671 95

The lungs of 490 British coal miners were examined for comparisons of the lesions of coal workers' pneumoconiosis with lung dust content and dust exposure. Variations were found in histological appearances that formed a range, the extremes of which indicated two separate patterns of disease. In men from high rank collieries, whose lung dust had a high carbon content and little ash, most of the nodules of simple pneumoconiosis were evenly pigmented with dust, and where progressive massive fibrosis (lesions greater than 1 cm in diameter) had developed, this appeared to be by the enlargement of a single lesion. In men from low rank collieries where the ash content of lung dust was high, the centers of the nodules were often free of dust particles and in extreme cases these lesions were very similar to silicotic nodules. If PMF developed in these cases, it often appeared to be by the fusion of closely spaced groups of smaller nodules. While there appeared to be little difference between the lung dust composition of men from high rank collieries and the dust to which they had been exposed, in men from low rank collieries the proportion of the noncoal minerals in the lungs was usually higher than it had been in the mine dust. This indicated some form of differential retention of these components, which was progressively more marked in men with the more serious grades of pneumoconiosis.
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PMID:Variations in the histological patterns of the lesions of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in Britain and their relationship to lung dust content. 687 54

To identify the clinical relevance of cytokines involved in the development of lung fibrosis observed in patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), we investigated the BAL fluid contents and AM secretions of three mediators that modulate fibroblast growth: platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), Type I insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I), and transforming growth factor Type beta (TGF-beta). Our study population consisted of 25 patients with CWP (16 simple pneumoconiosis, SP, 9 progressive massive fibrosis, PMF, 9 control subjects, and 6 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The fibrotic potency of AM supernatants was also tested for their ability to promote the growth of a human lung fibroblast cell line appreciated by [3H]-thymidine incorporation. PDGF and IGF-I concentrations were increased in BAL fluids of patients with PMF compared with SP and control subjects, whereas TGF-beta concentration was significantly higher in BAL fluid of patients with SP compared with PMF and control subjects. PDGF, IGF-I, and TGF-beta concentrations in AM supernatants followed the same profile observed in BAL fluids, suggesting that AM is one of the main cell sources of PDGF, IGF-I, and TGF-beta in the lung of pneumoconiotic patients. After treatment by acidification, which activated the latent form of TGF-beta, AM from patients with SP induced an inhibition of [3H]-thymidine incorporation and fibroblast growth was restored after neutralization of TGF-beta by specific antibodies. In contrast, AM supernatants from patients with PMF and IPF promoted the proliferation of fibroblasts and treatment by acidification did not modify this effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Mechanisms of fibrosis in coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Increased production of platelet-derived growth factor, insulin-like growth factor type I, and transforming growth factor beta and relationship to disease severity. 792 35

A 62-year-old man who had worked as a welder for 35 years was admitted with abnormal chest radiograph shadows. Chest CT scan showed ground-glass opacities (GGO) and nodular shadows (progressive massive fibrosis: PMF) with spiculation in both lung fields. Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) findings of a nodule (left segment 8) revealed many iron particles in the alveoli and positive staining for Fe (Berlin blue stain). Moreover, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of a GGO (left segment 4) revealed many iron particles and positive staining for Fe (Berlin blue stain) in macrophages. Serum ferritin was extremely high (6.352 ng/ml) and ferritin in the BAL fluid was 210 ng/ml. Taking the clinical course and pathological findings together, pneumoconiosis (arc welder's lung) was diagnosed. The most common chest CT pattern in arc welder's lung is ill-defined micronodules diffusely distributed in the lung like hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Arc welder's lung rarely presents as PMF. We report a case of arc welder's lung accompanied with PMF.
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PMID:[A case of arc welder's lung with ground-glass opacities and progressive massive fibrosis]. 1596 12