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Is abestos exposure a risk factor for small airways obstruction?
Dragoneri, Silvano; Baldassarre, Antonio; Carpagnano, Giovanna Elisiana.
  • Dragoneri S; Department of Respiratory Diseases, University of Bari, Italy.
  • Baldassarre A; Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
  • Carpagnano GE; Department of Respiratory Diseases, University of Bari, Italy.
G Ital Med Lav Ergon ; 44(1): 93, 2022 Mar.
Artículo en Inglés | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2101833
ABSTRACT

SUMMARY:

To the editor, during these pandemic years, COVID-19 is taking away focus from other respiratory diseases such as pneumoconiosis, which should not be overlooked. We would like to emphasize the possible role of small airways in subjects with asbestos exposure. In a very interesting study, Yang et al (1) investigated the relation between increased small airway obstruction and asbestos exposure in patients with asbestosis. The authors evaluated lung function in a cohort of 281 patients with newly diagnosed asbestosis during an eight-year period, evidencing that patients with asbestosis have small airway obstructive defects that are significantly associated with asbestos exposure (1). These results are very consistent and in line with our previous study, in which we showed that a population of 655 long-term residents in an environmental asbestos (tremolite)-exposed area had a higher prevalence of smallairways disease compared to a group of 653 individuals living in areas not tremolite-exposed (2). Odds Ratio for small-airways obstruction was 3.46, irrespective of smoking status (2). To date, our knowledge on the role of small airways in pulmonary diseases is still matter of debate. Although small airways have a minor contribution to airway resistance in healthy subjects, it has been shown that small airways are the major site of airflow limitation in diseases such as asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (3). Taken these data together, we warmly encourage clinicians and researchers to always consider small airways parameters when performing lung function on asbestosexposed subjects. Moreover, long-term investigations are warranted to explore the decline in airflow over time in patients with either occupational or environmental asbestos exposure and with asbestosis.
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Colección: Bases de datos internacionales Base de datos: MEDLINE Asunto principal: Amianto / Asbestosis / Exposición Profesional / Obstrucción de las Vías Aéreas / COVID-19 Tipo de estudio: Estudio de cohorte / Estudio experimental / Estudio observacional / Estudio pronóstico Tópicos: Covid persistente Límite: Humanos Idioma: Inglés Revista: G Ital Med Lav Ergon Asunto de la revista: Medicina Ocupacional Año: 2022 Tipo del documento: Artículo País de afiliación: Italia

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Colección: Bases de datos internacionales Base de datos: MEDLINE Asunto principal: Amianto / Asbestosis / Exposición Profesional / Obstrucción de las Vías Aéreas / COVID-19 Tipo de estudio: Estudio de cohorte / Estudio experimental / Estudio observacional / Estudio pronóstico Tópicos: Covid persistente Límite: Humanos Idioma: Inglés Revista: G Ital Med Lav Ergon Asunto de la revista: Medicina Ocupacional Año: 2022 Tipo del documento: Artículo País de afiliación: Italia