occupational exposures

Let’s Read an Article a Month – January 2023

by
The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I try to read an open-access article. Then I share the link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

This month I found a great piece to share with you.  The objective of this paper is to “to assess the association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease” (p6).

Association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the multinational Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

By: Jate Ratanachina, Andre F.S. Amaral, Sara De Matteis, Herve Lawin, Kevin Mortimer, Daniel O. Obaseki, Imed Harrabi, Meriam Denguezli, Emiel F.M. Wouters, Christer Janson, Rune Nielsen, Amund Gulsvik, Hamid Hacene Cherkaski, Filip Mejza, Padukudru Anand Mahesh, Asma Elsony, Rana Ahmed, Wan Tan, Li Cher Loh, Abdul Rashid, Michael Studnicka, Asaad A. Nafees, Terence Seemungal, Althea Aquart-Stewart, Mohammed Al Ghobain, Jinping Zheng, Sanjay Juvekar, Sundeep Salvi, Rain Jogi, David Mannino, Thorarinn Gislason, A. Sonia Buist, Paul Cullinan, and Peter Burney.

European Respiratory Journal 2023 61: 2200469; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00469-2022

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/61/1/2200469

“We found no significant associations between post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio or FVC and work in any of the high-risk occupations. FEV1/FVC was low in coal miners, sandblasters, chemical or plastic processors and steel millers with long durations of exposure, but these associations were not statistically significant. Moreover, there was no evidence of exposure-response associations of either post-bronchodilator lung function measures with any of the specific occupations.”

page 6

“Chronic phlegm but not chronic airflow obstruction was more likely to occur among users than among never-users of solid fuels.”

page 12

“The occurrence of occupational asthma, presenting with wheeze and breathlessness without affecting post-bronchodilator lung function. This can be induced by substances in workplaces such as animal dusts, flour, chemicals and metals.”

page 12

Happy reading and learning!

Farzad Refahi

www.respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-january-2023/

Let’s read an article a month – January 2022

by
The cropped screenshot of the first page of the article. It also includes the URL or link to the article.

Every month I read an open-access article. Then, I share the title and associated link with my followers. This is to encourage clinicians to read more articles, stay up to date, and continue to grow.

The coexistence of asthma and COPD: risk factors, clinical history and lung function trajectories

By: Alessandro Marcon, Francesca Locatelli, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Cecilie Svanes, Joachim Heinrich, Bénédicte Leynaert, Peter Burney, Angelo Corsico, Gulser Caliskan, Lucia Calciano, Thorarinn Gislason, Christer Janson, Deborah Jarvis, Rain Jõgi, Theodore Lytras, Andrei Malinovschi, Nicole Probst-Hensch, Kjell Toren, Lidia Casas, Giuseppe Verlato, Judith Garcia-Aymerich, and Simone Accordini on behalf of the Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts (ALEC) study

European Respiratory Journal 2021 58: 2004656; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.04656-2020

Link to the article: https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/erj/58/5/2004656.full.pdf

The reasons I found this article interesting 

A detailed study with around 20 years of medical history. A large number of individuals [14864, 9251 and 6122, respectively in ECRHS I, II and III who underwent clinical examinations, from 23 centres] (p4).  Useful observations were presented based on past asthma, current asthma, asthma + COPD, and COPD alone. A recommended article to students, new RRTs and even experienced clinicians.  There are many results, findings and conclusions that I cannot cover in a post. As always, I recommend that you read the full article for yourself.

”Lung function decline for subjects with asthma + COPD could have been mitigated by long-term anti-inflammatory treatment. “ (p9).

“The coexistence of asthma and COPD  seems to be a form of severe asthma with severe asthma with origins early in life, as opposed to COPD alone, which is more linked to adult exposures.”  (p10).

”…COPD without concomitant features of asthma seems predominantly linked to adult-life toxic inhalant exposures.  Exposure avoidance (e.g. through smoking cessation and reduction of pollution exposure in occupational settings) may be particularly beneficial against the development of the “pure COPD” phenotype…” (p10).

Happy reading and learning.

Farzad Refahi

January 01, 2022

Link to the blog post: https://respiratory.blog/lets-read-an-article-a-month-January-2022/