European journal of respiratory diseases. Supplement最新文献

A postal survey was used to investigate the characteristics of farmers who have acquired dust respirators. In 1979 about a quarter of the farmers were using dust respirators, men more often than women. The more vocational training the farmer had and the larger the area of land under cultivation the more likely he was to own a dust respirator. Grain producers had purchased the protective devices more frequently than other farmers had. Farmers who participated in the occupational health intervention during 1980-82 had acquired dust respirators considerably more often than those in the control group. In the intervention group men under 30 years had most frequently purchased the dust respirators. Participation in the intervention influenced the acquisition of dust respirators more than did occurrence of symptoms of chronic bronchitis or farmer's lung.

The aim of this study was to measure the total concentrations of dust in piggeries and to analyze the components of the dust. Dust samples were taken from 15 fattening pig and/or sow farms situated in southern Finland. Total concentrations of dust were measured by the gravimetric method; the organic portion of the total dust was determined by ashing, mass distribution determined by Cascade Centripeter sampler, count distribution by optical analyzer, and toxic metals of the total dust by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The mean concentrations of total dust at stationary sampling sites were higher on fattening pig farms (9.4 +/- 1.7 mg/m3) (mean +/- SE) than on sow farms (5.2 +/- 1.2 mg/m3). The concentrations in the breathing zone were 8.6 +/- 2.7 mg/m3 and 7.9 +/- 3.2 mg/m3, respectively. The proportion of organic dust was about 90% in the dust of pig units. The mass median aerodynamic diameter of the dust particles in pig fattening units was 11 micron. Concentrations of toxic metals (nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, chromium, cadmium) were very low.

Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome is a catastrophic disease which is characterized by tachypnoea, arterial hypoxemia, reduced pulmonary compliance, and diffuse alveolar infiltrates. The pathology is that of diffuse alveolar damage which includes injury to both endothelial cells and type I epithelial cells. The major physiological abnormality is reduced pulmonary compliance. The available data indicate that one of the causes for the reduced compliance is altered surface tension in the distal airspaces. Pulmonary surface material isolated from patients with Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome has an altered phospholipid composition. Part of the current therapy is to overcome the reduced compliance by mechanical ventilation while allowing the lung time to heal. In the future, exogenous surfactant may also be used as part of the therapy in selected severely ill patients.

Monoclonal antibody based immunohistochemistry is a very powerful tool for the establishment of a pathological diagnosis of lung cancer. Applying a panel of intermediate filament antisera and an antibody recognizing neuroendocrine differentiation we have tested about 240 human lung tumors and 15 human lung tumor cell lines. Our results can be summarized as follows: a differential diagnosis between neuroendocrine and non-neuroendocrine lung tumors can be obtained by the application of the monoclonal antibody MOC-1 directed against neuroendocrine antigens. Immunohistochemistry can lead to a better recognition of lung tumor heterogeneity within the established histologies. Examples of this phenomenon are: the presence of neuroendocrine and/or neural components within non-neuroendocrine tumors. The presence of squamous cell or adenocarcinomatous differentiation in non-SCLC can be detected by chain specific anti-cytokeratin antibodies. The degree of differentiation towards the variant type within SCLC can be detected by the monoclonal antibody directed against neurofilaments. lung cancer cell lines can serve as an in vitro model for immunohistochemical studies on different lung cancer subtypes.

Occurrence of storage mites was studied in cow houses and hay stores on 19 farms, most of which were located in eastern Finland. On two farms we did a monthly follow-up. Mites were extracted from hay by sieving, using the so-called "water trap" and for longitudinal analysis, with a warm extractor. The mites isolated in the water trap were identified under a microscope. Contrary to previous Finnish findings, there apparently were more mites in cow houses than in hay stores. In cow houses there were an average of 1,650 mites per gram of dust and in hay stores about 1,100 mites per gram of dust. Acarus siro was most abundant in cow houses (67% of all the mites found in cow houses) and more than 1,000 mites/g of sample material. The second most numerous was Tydeus spp. (178 mites/g of sample material). After that, Lepidoglyphus destructor, Tyrophagus longior, Glycyphagus domesticus occurred in about equal numbers. In hay stores Tydeus spp. was slightly more common (341 mites/g of sample material) than Acarus siro (317 mites/g of sample material). Lepidoglyphus destructor (64 mites/g of sample material), Glycyphagus domesticus (60 mites/g of sample material) and Mesostigmata (57 mites/g of dust) occurred in about equal numbers. According to the analysis based on one farm the number of mites in hay stores decreased considerably from September to February. Based on four measurements in the cow house of another farm, however, no steady trend of longitudinal variation could be found. Mites were most abundant at the beginning of January. There were few or no mites in bales of dry and unmoulded hay.