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)

In a 37 years-old female worker, who had undergone surgical excision of a segment of the right lower lobe for a chronic aspecific pleuropneumonitis, the histological examination of the excised lung tissue showed asbestos alveolitis with diffuse interstitial fibrosis, and multiple granulomata containing talc particles. An investigation at the work site showed that the worker had been engaged for 22 years in dusting salami with a mixture of rice flour and talc contaminated with chrysotile asbestos. Thirteen work-mates engaged in the same job were studied. In two of them, with chest X-rays negative for pneumoconiosis, a functional ventilatory impairment, restrictive in type, associated with a reduced pulmonary diffusion of gases, was demonstrated. In these two cases, bronchoalveolar lavage showed signs of severe exposure to asbestos (which at TEM evaluation resulted to be amphibolic) talc and other fibres, with presence of iron-laden macrophages, indicators of haemorrhagic alveolitis. Moreover, in one of them, a severe macrophagic-lymphocytic alveolitis, with inverted T helper/T suppressor ratio, was presented, possible expression of a hypersensitivity pulmonary reaction. Taking into consideration the length and modality of work, with exposure to talc powder contaminated with asbestos, for the three cases the diagnosis of "pre-radiologic talcosis-asbestosis" was made. Since the occupational risk was not known in this industry, no ambient and personal preventive and protective measures had been taken; anyway, such type of work has now been stopped. The exposed workers shall be kept under control in the future for surveillance directed towards early diagnosis of possible further asbestos effects.
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PMID:[Talcosis-asbestosis: an unusual risk in a food industry]. 315 50

The purpose of this study has been to elucidate the usefulness of TEM/STEM/EDX system in the identification of environmental dust within the interstitial macrophages of the lung. The four cases chosen for this study gave variable history of exposure to occupational "dust". A review of literature with particular reference to clay associated pneumoconiosis has been made. Previous studies have given little prominence to the fate or behaviour of inhaled "dust" particles in the intracellular environment. It is here that it is believed that a TEM/STEM/EDX system has the potential of playing a significant role in promoting our understanding of "dust" associated pneumoconiotic disease of the lung. The results obtained from the three cases demonstrate the presence of clay particles in the form of granules, plates and needles or thin flakes within the phagosomes of the interstitial macrophages. On morphological grounds the thin needles or flakes appeared to undergo a process of stacking within the phagosomal matrix resulting in the formation of large closely stacked needle-like structures which lie free in the cytoplasm. The possibility of a physicochemical basis for such a morphological sequence is discussed. The fourth case, that of stainless steel associated pneumoconiosis, also showed evidence of breakdown of the original dust in the macrophages. From the evidence presented it is concluded that application of the TEM/STEM/EDX technique may advance our knowledge of the interaction of inhaled dust and the macrophages at the subcellular level.
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PMID:The role of electron microscopy and microanalytical techniques in the understanding of the pathophysiology of environmental dusts associated with lung disease. 663 68

This research is designed to evaluate a number of biological markers to estimate harmful exposure on coal miners from different mining regions in France and to relate the outcome to differences in prevalence of coal worker pneumoconiosis (CWP) between these regions. Eight epidemiological groups of active and ex-miners (smokers and non-smokers) have been selected in the French collieries (North, Lorraine and Provence) according to their occupational and pneumoconiotic status. The following biomarkers have been evaluated: cellularity of sputum, elementary analysis of particles in TEM/EDAX, plasma neutral metalloendo-peptidase elastase type (NMEP), leucocyte elastase (HLE), fibronectin (FN) and elastin peptides. Pulmonary alveolitis, expressed by sputum cellularity, is different between active workers groups but not related to the general background of pneumoconiosis prevalence in the French collieries. In the plasma parameters, fibronectin, HLE and NMEP significantly increased in all groups of coal mine workers as compared to the control group, except for fibronectin parameter in Lorraine collierie. The degree of increase of these parameters allow us to discriminate the different groups and suggest that plasma FN, HLE and NMEP may be considered as biological markers of chronic inhalation of coal mine dust particles. The decrease of elastin peptides level in the Lorraine group alone suggests a specific alteration of elastin metabolism. These parameters were not related to the development of pneumoconiosis and its degree of severity.
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PMID:Biological markers as indicators of exposure and pneumoconiotic risk: prospective study. 840 28