Source: Annual Congress 2002 - Asbestos and silica
Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

There are few studies assessing respiratory effects of environmental asbestos exposure in contrast to large number of studies investigating the pulmonary function changes in workers occupationally exposed to asbestos.
Subjects and method: Thirty-six subjects with a history of environmental asbestos exposure and having asbestos related changes on chest radiographs participated in the study. Pulmonary function tests were perfomed in all of them while arterial blood gases were analyzed in all except three subjects.
Results: The subjects (mean age: 61.2 ±] 9.8) most commonly had pleural plaques and diffuse pleural thickening on chest X rays. Pulmonary function tests revealed mild restriction in 10 subjects, moderate restriction in 5 subjects and severe restriction in 5 subjects, while they were completely normal in 11 subjects. In addition to restrictive abnormalities, five subjects had obstruction in large airways while eleven subjects revealed small airways obstruction. Arterial blood gases were normal in three subjects while mild or moderate hypoxemia were found in 21 and 7 patients, respectively. Four subjects had hypocapnia while another two had hypercapnia.
Conclusion: Environmental exposure to asbestos cause varying degrees of abnormalities in pulmonary functions and arterial blood gases of the subjects.

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M. Gokirmak, N. Koksal, Z. Orhan, S. S. Hacievliyagil, Z. Yildirim, C. Hasanoglu (Malatya, Kahraman Maras, Turkey). Effect of environmental asbestos exposure on pulmonary functions and arterial blood gases. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: Suppl. 38, 839

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