Performance of Neurobehavioral Tests Among Welders Exposed to Manganese / 대한산업의학회지

To study neurobehavioral effects for manganese fume exposure of welders, we administrated questionnaire about subjective symptom, related with manganese exposure. Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery of World Health Qrganization(NCTB) and finger tapping for 98 welders and 29 non-welding workers. We adopted welding duration as a criterion for exposure assessment, because of the lack of the longitudinal valid data and differences in airborne concentrations of manganese in welding types, such as shielded metal arc and CO2 arc welding. Neurologic, musculoskeletal and concentration symptoms were significantly increased by increase of welding duration. Performance of finger tapping preferred hand, Santa Ana dexterity test preferred hand and correct number of pursuit aiming were significantly decreased by increase of welding duration. These results comparable with previous studies that suggest neurobehavioral test, especially motor test, to be an appropriate tool to detect early neurobehavioral abnormalities related with manganeses exposure.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among Service and Manufacturing Workers with Repetitive Motion Tasks / 대한산업의학회지

The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of occupationally related carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) among workers employed in services and manufacturing industries analysing the sensitivity and specificity of clinical symptoms and signs. Three surveys were made for this study. The first survey was done for 1,447 workers employed by 25 companies. The jobs of the employees were repetitive works at VDT and assembly lines. Therefore, employees could be divided to two groups, doing repetitive works and non repetitive works. The second survey was made for 189 workers who were randomly selected from 517 workers complained some symptoms at their hands and wrists. We examined their symptoms and carried out neurological examinations for CTS (Tinel's sign, Phalen's sign, pin prick test, carpal compressive test, toniquet compression test). The third survey was made for nerve conduction study (NCS) for 57 workers who had shown positive signs for CTS. The main results of this study were as follows: 1. From the first survey, we have found that there were significant statistical differences in getting uncomfortable neuromuscular symptoms by sex, job type, total working hours during a week, duration of current work, and kinds of work. Odds ratio in male vs female, repetitive vs non repetitive, service vs manufacturing companies, total working hours during a week, and duration of current work were 1.867(95% CI=1.467-2.377), 1.680 (95% CI=1.121-2.279), 1.663(95% CI=1.213-2.279), 1.016(95% CI=1.006-1.027) and 1.283 (95% CI=1.097-1.501) respectively. 2. From the second survey, we have found that 46 peoples (25.0%) were positive for one or more than one signs in neurological examinations of NIOSH criteria. Positive findings from neurological examinations were high among workers of low level of education (p-value=0.008), manufacturing jobs (p-value=0.00), long hours a week (p-value=0.028), and long duration of current work (p-value=0.00). 3. From the third survey, we diagnosed 35 peoples (61.4%) had CTS by NCS. They had abnormally delayed latent period or velocity in median nerve conduction velocity.