ABSTRACT
Retrospective research has been carried out on the clinical reports of 618 cases of patients suffering from silicosis admitted to the S. Luigi Gonzaga Hospital in 1973-1987 (1.4% of all pneumopathy admittances). A comparative evaluation of the five-year periods 1973-77, 1978-82, 1983-87 showed a steady reduction in the percentage of silicosis to total cases (from 1.62% to 1.55% and 1.16%). Among the 618 cases assessed, the following pneumopathies were associated with silicosis either alone or in combination: chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy (89.4%), pulmonary tuberculosis (22.2%), bronchogenic carcinoma (8.4%), acute aspecific infections (26.1%), mycosis (0.6%), sarcoidosis (0.3%), other pneumopathies (1.1%). Comparison between the three five-year periods shows an increase in the frequency of the silicosis-carcinoma association and a fall in the silicosis-tuberculosis and silicosis-COLD associations.
Subject(s)
Lung Diseases/complications , Silicosis/complications , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Carcinoma, Bronchogenic/complications , Carcinoma, Bronchogenic/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Italy , Lung Diseases/epidemiology , Lung Diseases, Obstructive/complications , Lung Diseases, Obstructive/epidemiology , Lung Neoplasms/complications , Lung Neoplasms/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Silicosis/epidemiology , Silicotuberculosis/complications , Silicotuberculosis/epidemiologyABSTRACT
This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated the therapeutic effects of a single dose of doxofylline, a methylxanthine derivative, in 10 patients aged 26-79 years. All patients had acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive airways disease partially reversible with salbutamol inhaler. Doxofylline was administered intravenously at a dose of 200 mg over 15 min on two different occasions separated by at least 24 h. Doxofylline increased forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration compared with baseline as follows: +20% after 2 h (P less than 0.01); +31% after 4 h (P less than 0.01); and +13% after 6 h (NS). Changes produced by placebo at these times were -4.4%, -14% and -5% (all NS). The average differences between the groups were significant at all observation times. At the end of the observation period eight out of 10 patients given doxofylline and one out of 10 patients given placebo had improved clinically according to the patients' own opinion. Clinical tolerability of doxofylline proved to be good since no signs of local or general side-effects were observed in any of the patients treated.
