Occupational exposures play a role in the onset of several chronic airway diseases. We investigated, in a cross-sectional study, lung function parameters and bronchial hyper-responsiveness to histamine in workers exposed to different airborne compounds.The study group totalled 546 male subjects of whom 114 were exposed to welding fumes, 106 to solvents, 107 to mineral dust, 97 to organic dust a...

Systemic and airway eosinophilia are recognised features of asthma. There are, however, patients who exhibit discordance between local and systemic eosinophilia. In this study, we sought to determine the prevalence and characteristics of patients with concordant and discordant systemic and bronchial eosinophilia. We conducted a retrospective study on 508 asthmatics with successful sputum induct...

Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is influenced by structural components of the bronchial wall, including the smooth muscle and connective tissue elements and the neuromuscular function. AHR is also influenced by parenchymally derived tethering forces on the bronchial wall, which maintain airway caliber by producing outward radial traction. Our previous work has shown that vitamin A-deficient (V...

Isocyanates are the most significant cause of occupational asthma in our country. To evaluate the prevalence of work-related respiratory symptoms and immunologic sensitization to it, we performed a questionnaire survey, allergy skin test, radioallergosorbent test (RAST) to toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-human serum albumin (HSA) conjugate and methacholine bronchial challenge test on 23 isocyanate-e...