Three hundred and fourteen male seasonal migrant workers who were working in jobs that exposed them to large amounts of dust were used as subjects. As the control group, 63 male migrant workers who had no dust-exposure experience and who showed no abnormalities in chest roentgenographic examinations were studied. All participants were aged 40 to 79.
Chest roentgenographic examinations and pulmonary function tests were performed on all participants.
Two hundred and eighty cases of silicosis patients were found by chest roentgenographic examination of migrant workers who had worked in jobs that exposed them to dust. Silicosis is classified into four types according to the national Pneumoconiosis Law on the basis of chest roentgenographic findings. These patients included 72 cases of type 1, 77 cases of type 2, 76 cases of type 3 and 55 cases of type 4 silicosis.
The prevalence of respiratory disease symptoms in the silicosis patients included; cough 44%, phlegm 46%, wheezing 21%, shortness of breath 46% and persistent cough with phlegm in 29% of the cases. The frequency of disease symptoms of silicosis patients was significantly greater than that for migrant workers without the disease as well as the controls. The frequency of symptoms (especially shortness of breath and persistent cough with phlegm) increased as roentgenographic findings worsened.
For pulmonary function test, the mean spirometric indicators (FVC, %VC, FEV1, FEV1%) and flow-volume curve indicators (V50, V50/Ht, V25, V25/Ht) for the silicosis patients aged 40 to 59 were significantly lower than those for controls of the same aged group.
For arterial blood gas analysis, the mean values of AaDO
2 for the silicosis patients aged 40 to 59 were significantly higher than for controls of the same age group.
The mean values for FVC, %VC, FEV1, T50, V50/Ht, V25 and V25/Ht decreased as roentgenographic findings worsened.
But there was no significant difference in pulmonary function for the silicosis patients aged 60 to 79 years when compared to controls in this aged range.
Twenty-two percent of the silicosis showed serious pulmonary function impairments.
Of thirteen indicators of spirometry, flow-volume curve and arterial gas analysis, six indicators (FEV1, FEV1%, V50, V50/Ht, V25 and V25/Ht) seem to be useful in the early detection of pulmonary function disorders. Eight indicators (FVC, %VC, FEV1, V50, V50/Ht, V25, V25/Ht and AaDO
2) seem to be correlate with roentgenographic findings. These results suggest that in particular FVC, FEV1, V50/Ht, V25/Ht and AaDO
2 are useful for evaluting the pulmonary impairments caused by exposure to dust.
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