Advances in Identifying Beryllium Sensitization and Disease
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چکیده
Beryllium is a lightweight metal with unique qualities related to stiffness, corrosion resistance, and conductivity. While there are many useful applications, researchers in the 1930s and 1940s linked beryllium exposure to a progressive occupational lung disease. Acute beryllium disease is a pulmonary irritant response to high exposure levels, whereas chronic beryllium disease (CBD) typically results from a hypersensitivity response to lower exposure levels. A blood test, the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT), was an important advance in identifying individuals who are sensitized to beryllium (BeS) and thus at risk for developing CBD. While there is no true "gold standard" for BeS, basic epidemiologic concepts have been used to advance our understanding of the different screening algorithms.
منابع مشابه
Beryllium Sensitization Progresses to Chronic Beryllium Disease
The blood beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test is used in medical surveillance to identify both beryllium sensitization and chronic beryllium disease. Approximately 50% of individuals with beryllium sensitization have chronic beryllium disease at the time of their initial clinical evaluation; however, the rate of progression from beryllium sensitization to chronic beryllium disease is unknow...
متن کاملBeryllium sensitization progresses to chronic beryllium disease: a longitudinal study of disease risk.
The blood beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test is used in medical surveillance to identify both beryllium sensitization and chronic beryllium disease. Approximately 50% of individuals with beryllium sensitization have chronic beryllium disease at the time of their initial clinical evaluation; however, the rate of progression from beryllium sensitization to chronic beryllium disease is unknow...
متن کاملThe beryllium occupational exposure limit: historical origin and current inadequacy.
This report considers the historical origin of the current beryllium occupational exposure limit (OEL) and the evidence that led most authorities to conclude that it was adequately protective against clinically evident chronic beryllium disease (CBD). Nearly 40 years later, during the late 1980s, it was shown that in addition to CBD, beryllium can cause asymptomatic sensitization and asymptomat...
متن کاملSensitization and chronic beryllium disease among workers in copper-beryllium distribution centers.
OBJECTIVE Little is known about the risk of sensitization and chronic beryllium disease (CBD) among workers performing limited processing of copper-beryllium alloys downstream of the primary beryllium industry. In this study, we performed a cross-sectional survey of employees at three copper-beryllium alloy distribution centers. METHODS One hundred workers were invited to be tested for beryll...
متن کاملSkin as a route of exposure and sensitization in chronic beryllium disease.
Chronic beryllium disease is an occupational lung disease that begins as a cell-mediated immune response to beryllium. Although respiratory and engineering controls have significantly decreased occupational beryllium exposures over the last decade, the rate of beryllium sensitization has not declined. We hypothesized that skin exposure to beryllium particles would provide an alternative route f...
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