Chest
Lung Function in Silica-exposed Workers: A Relationship to Disease Severity Assessed by CT Scan
Section snippets
Sicila-exposed Workers
The 94 workers in this study had worked in either the granite or foundry industries or in the gold mines of Québec for an average of 29 ± 3 years (range, 14 to 42 years). Ninety percent were either current or former cigarette smokers and had smoked on the average 21 ± 5 pack-years. The majority of the patients were evaluated for possible Workmen's Compensation on the recommendation of their physicians, which constitutes the bias of this study. Eighty of the 94 were granite workers, ten were
RESULTS
To illustrate briefly the greater sensitivity of CT scan of the thorax, Figure 1 shows the chest x-ray film and CT scan of a patient who was considered to have simple silicosis on chest x-ray film but clearly had a coalescence of opacities on CT scan. Figure 2 shows the chest x-ray film and CT scan of another patient in whom the large opacities of upper lobes and small opacities of lower lobes are better appreciated on CT scan. The patient in Figure 1 was in group 3 and the patient in Figure 2
DISCUSSION
This study of lung function in long-term silica-exposed workers documents that disease severity, which is better defined radiographically by CT scan than by plain roentgenogram, is also reflected on lung function as restrictive changes. The disease severity also seems to be associated with excessive airflow limitation.
In this study, all workers were exposed to silica dust for more than 20 years; the groups were comparable in terms of age, height, and smoking habit; and the three distinct
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Supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada and IRSST Québec.
Manuscript received November 19; revision accepted February 3.