In order to find out a sensitive indicator of early lung pathology in coal workers' pneumoconiosis, we have performed on 10 clerical (control) and 97 dust workers a series of medical examinations and laboratory tests of imaging analysis (plain
chest
radiography and high resolution computed tomography), pulmonary physiology (forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in one second and peak expiratory flow rate), bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytology (the total and the differential cell
counts)
and ultrathin bronchofiberscopy of small airways. The findings were further factor analyzed.
@ES The results were as follows:
@EN 1. The CT grading (Bergin) of lung dust lesions of dust workers was generally higher than that of the ILO categories of pneumoconisis. The consistency rate of these two classification was 21.4% for ILO category 0/0, 3.3% for ILO category 0/1,
24.1%
for large opacity group.
2. The forced vital capacity decreased significantly in category 1 pneumoconiosis and above than in normal controls, while FEV10/FVC ratio and PEFR showed a significant decrease in category 0/1 pneumoconiosis and above than in normal controls.
3. The total cell counts as well as the differential counts of macrophage, neutrophil and lymphocyte in BAL fluid showed significant deviations from the normal in dust worker group.
4. The ultrathin bronchofiberscopy of small airways showed more pathologic findings in dust workers than in normal controls and these findings were more frequently observed as the severity of pneumoconiosis proceeded.
5. The factor analytic procedure suggested the ultrathin bronchofiberscopy of small airways was the most sensitive procedure for early diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, as the first factor of the analysis seemed to reflect mainly the pathology of
small
airway.
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