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Association of smoking cessation with airflow obstruction in workers with silicosis: A cohort study.PloS One 2024Studies in general population reported a positive association between tobacco smoking and airflow obstruction (AFO), a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease...
BACKGROUND
Studies in general population reported a positive association between tobacco smoking and airflow obstruction (AFO), a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, this attempt was less addressed in silica dust-exposed workers.
METHODS
This retrospective cohort study consisted of 4481 silicotic workers attending the Pneumoconiosis Clinic during 1981-2019. The lifelong work history and smoking habits of these workers were extracted from medical records. Spirometry was carried out at the diagnosis of silicosis (n = 4177) and reperformed after an average of 9.4 years of follow-up (n = 2648). AFO was defined as forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)/force vital capacity (FVC) less than lower limit of normal (LLN). The association of AFO with smoking status was determined using multivariate logistics regression, and the effect of smoking cessation on the development of AFO was evaluated Cox regression.
RESULTS
Smoking was significantly associated with AFO (current smokers: OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.51-2.44; former smokers: OR = 2.09, 95% CI 1.65-2.66). The risk of AFO significantly increased in the first 3 years of quitting smoking (OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.02-1.47) but decreased afterwards with increasing years of cessation. Smoking cessation reduced the risk of developing AFO no matter before or after the confirmation of silicosis (pre-silicosis cessation: HR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.46-0.74; post-silicosis cessation: HR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.48-0.79).
CONCLUSIONS
Smoking cessation significantly reduced the risk of AFO in the workers with silicosis, although the health benefit was not observed until 3 years of abstinence. These findings highlight the importance of early and long-term smoking cessation among silicotic or silica dust-exposed workers.
Topics: Humans; Silicosis; Male; Middle Aged; Smoking Cessation; Retrospective Studies; Adult; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Female; Occupational Exposure; Forced Expiratory Volume; Smoking; Spirometry; Vital Capacity; Cohort Studies
PubMed: 38753732
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303743 -
BMC Pulmonary Medicine May 2024Simvastatin (Sim), a hydroxy-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, has been widely used in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases....
BACKGROUND
Simvastatin (Sim), a hydroxy-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, has been widely used in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Studies have suggested that Sim exerts anti-fibrotic effects by interfering fibroblast proliferation and collagen synthesis. This study was to determine whether Sim could alleviate silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis and explore the underlying mechanisms.
METHODS
The rat model of silicosis was established by the tracheal perfusion method and treated with Sim (5 or 10 mg/kg), AICAR (an AMPK agonist), and apocynin (a NOX inhibitor) for 28 days. Lung tissues were collected for further analyses including pathological histology, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT), and the AMPK-NOX pathway.
RESULTS
Sim significantly reduced silica-induced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis at 28 days after administration. Sim could reduce the levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and transforming growth factor-β1 in lung tissues. The expressions of hydroxyproline, α-SMA and vimentin were down-regulated, while E-cad was increased in Sim-treated rats. In addition, NOX4, p22pox, p40phox, p-p47phox/p47phox expressions and ROS levels were all increased, whereas p-AMPK/AMPK was decreased in silica-induced rats. Sim or AICAR treatment could notably reverse the decrease of AMPK activity and increase of NOX activity induced by silica. Apocynin treatment exhibited similar protective effects to Sim, including down-regulating of oxidative stress and inhibition of the EMT process and inflammatory reactions.
CONCLUSIONS
Sim attenuates silica-induced pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis by downregulating EMT and oxidative stress through the AMPK-NOX pathway.
Topics: Animals; Male; Rats; Acetophenones; Aminoimidazole Carboxamide; AMP-Activated Protein Kinases; Disease Models, Animal; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; Lung; NADPH Oxidase 4; NADPH Oxidases; Oxidative Stress; Pneumonia; Pulmonary Fibrosis; Ribonucleotides; Signal Transduction; Silicon Dioxide; Silicosis; Simvastatin; Transforming Growth Factor beta1
PubMed: 38720270
DOI: 10.1186/s12890-024-03014-9 -
Journal of Global Antimicrobial... May 2024Over one year, two KPC-producing and two non-KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae strains were isolated from a patient. Genome and DNA hybridization analyses revealed the...
Over one year, two KPC-producing and two non-KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae strains were isolated from a patient. Genome and DNA hybridization analyses revealed the first three strains as a clonal lineage, with carbapenem resistance changes due to a Tn2-like transposon on an IncR/IncFII plasmid. The fourth strain, carrying three plasmids, caused a lethal infection and represented a different lineage. All strains belonged to the ST11-SL47-OL101 type. This study highlights the Tn2-like transposon's role in carbapenemase gene spread and the importance of distinguishing between bacterial colonization and infection.
PubMed: 38719187
DOI: 10.1016/j.jgar.2024.04.011 -
Heliyon May 2024Abnormalities in pulmonary vasculature or technical issues during lung procurement can lead to an insufficient left atrial (LA) cuff in donors. However, surgeons...
Abnormalities in pulmonary vasculature or technical issues during lung procurement can lead to an insufficient left atrial (LA) cuff in donors. However, surgeons frequently need to reconfigure these less-than-ideal lungs for transplantation. This case report introduces a novel technique for such reconstruction. The patient was a 35-year-old male diagnosed with pneumoconiosis for over a year. Due to progressive worsening dyspnoea leading to respiratory failure on multiple occasions, he was deemed a candidate for lung transplantation. While obtaining the donor's lung, an inadvertent short cut of the LA cuff around the left inferior pulmonary vein orifice resulted in the residual vein retracting into the pulmonary hilum. To overcome this, we employed the aortic arch for reconstruction, enabling the successful completion of the lung transplantation. On post-transplantation day 2, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was no longer required. Mechanical ventilation ceased after 13 days, with the subsequent removal of a tracheostomy. The patient spent 35 days in the intensive care unit and 58 days in the hospital. Post-transplantation complications included primary graft dysfunction, acute kidney failure, pneumothorax in the transplanted lung, the clots in the inferior vena cava, and pneumonia. Remarkably, over a year of follow-up (19 months after lung transplantation), the patient reported no adverse events and had successfully returned to work. In this case, the aortic arch is an alternative for reconstructing an insufficient LA cuff.
PubMed: 38694087
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29805 -
Sheng Wu Yi Xue Gong Cheng Xue Za Zhi =... Apr 2024Pneumoconiosis ranks first among the newly-emerged occupational diseases reported annually in China, and imaging diagnosis is still one of the main clinical diagnostic... (Review)
Review
Pneumoconiosis ranks first among the newly-emerged occupational diseases reported annually in China, and imaging diagnosis is still one of the main clinical diagnostic methods. However, manual reading of films requires high level of doctors, and it is difficult to discriminate the staged diagnosis of pneumoconiosis imaging, and due to the influence of uneven distribution of medical resources and other factors, it is easy to lead to misdiagnosis and omission of diagnosis in primary healthcare institutions. Computer-aided diagnosis system can realize rapid screening of pneumoconiosis in order to assist clinicians in identification and diagnosis, and improve diagnostic efficacy. As an important branch of deep learning, convolutional neural network (CNN) is good at dealing with various visual tasks such as image segmentation, image classification, target detection and so on because of its characteristics of local association and weight sharing, and has been widely used in the field of computer-aided diagnosis of pneumoconiosis in recent years. This paper was categorized into three parts according to the main applications of CNNs (VGG, U-Net, ResNet, DenseNet, CheXNet, Inception-V3, and ShuffleNet) in the imaging diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, including CNNs in pneumoconiosis screening diagnosis, CNNs in staging diagnosis of pneumoconiosis, and CNNs in segmentation of pneumoconiosis foci to conduct a literature review. It aims to summarize the methods, advantages and disadvantages, and optimization ideas of CNN applied to the images of pneumoconiosis, and to provide a reference for the research direction of further development of computer-aided diagnosis of pneumoconiosis.
Topics: Humans; Neural Networks, Computer; Pneumoconiosis; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; Deep Learning; Occupational Diseases; China; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
PubMed: 38686425
DOI: 10.7507/1001-5515.202309079 -
Infection and Drug Resistance 2024We reported a 51-year-old male electric welder with stage I pneumoconiosis, who had no significant cough, sputum, fever, chest pain, or other discomfort. However,...
We reported a 51-year-old male electric welder with stage I pneumoconiosis, who had no significant cough, sputum, fever, chest pain, or other discomfort. However, regular physical examination at our hospital revealed bilateral pulmonary nodules with cavity formation. Blood routine, liver or kidney function, and infection-related biomarkers, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and procalcitonin (PCT), were normal. Sputum and alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smears, BALF (TB) PCR, and T-SPOT.TB were negative. The nucleic acid sequence of was detected by BALF metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), which was confirmed by the subsequent positive culture for NTM. Considering stable conditions, no significant discomfort, and no significant changes in the lung lesion, the patient was diagnosed with inactive nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD).
PubMed: 38645890
DOI: 10.2147/IDR.S448805 -
BMC Pulmonary Medicine Apr 2024Silicosis people are at high risk of developing pulmonary tuberculosis. Whether silica exposure increases the likelihood of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) was not...
OBJECTIVES
Silicosis people are at high risk of developing pulmonary tuberculosis. Whether silica exposure increases the likelihood of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) was not well understood, and potential factors involved in LTBI risk among silicosis people were not evaluated before. Thus, LTBI among silicosis people and potential risk factors for LTBI among silicosis people were evaluated in this study.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was undertaken for 130 miner workers with silicosis. The QFT-GIT was performed for LTBI detection.
RESULTS
The LTBI was high to 31.6% (36/114) for silicosis participants, and 13.1% (13/99) had a history of tuberculosis. Drinking was associated with LTBI risk (OR = 6.92, 95%CI, 1.47-32.66, P = 0.015). Meanwhile, tunneling work was associated with an increased risk of LTBI compared with other mining occupations (OR = 3.91,95%CI,1.20-12.70, P = 0.024).
CONCLUSIONS
The LTBI rate of silicosis participants was high and more than 10% had a history of tuberculosis. Drinking alcohol and tunneling were independent risk factors for LTBI in silicosis participants.
Topics: Humans; Latent Tuberculosis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Tuberculosis; Risk Factors; China; Silicosis; Interferon-gamma Release Tests; Tuberculin Test
PubMed: 38622607
DOI: 10.1186/s12890-024-02985-z -
Frontiers in Public Health 2024To investigate the causal relationships between pneumoconiosis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and gout.
OBJECTIVES
To investigate the causal relationships between pneumoconiosis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and gout.
METHODS
The random-effects inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach was utilized to explore the causal effects of the instrumental variables (IVs). Sensitivity analyses using the MR-Egger and weighted median (WM) methods were did to investigate horizontal pleiotropy. A leave-one-out analysis was used to avoid the bias resulting from single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
RESULTS
There was no causal association between pneumoconiosis and SLE, RA or gout in the European population [OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.94-1.10, = 0.74; OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.999-1.000, = 0.50; OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 1.000-1.001, = 0.55]. Causal relationships were also not found in pneumoconiosis due to asbestos and other mineral fibers and SLE, RA and gout [OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.96-1.07, = 0.66; OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 1.00-1.00, = 0.68; OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 1.00-1.00, = 0.20].
CONCLUSION
Our study suggests that pneumoconiosis may have no causal relationship with the three inflammatory immune diseases.
Topics: Humans; Mendelian Randomization Analysis; Pneumoconiosis; Gout; Immune System Diseases; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic
PubMed: 38601492
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1373044 -
Frontiers in Microbiology 2024The human gut microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining our health. Fluctuations in the diversity and structure of the gut microbiota have been implicated in the... (Review)
Review
The human gut microbiome plays a critical role in maintaining our health. Fluctuations in the diversity and structure of the gut microbiota have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several metabolic and inflammatory conditions. Dietary patterns, medication, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity can all influence the abundance of different types of microbiota in the gut, which in turn can affect the health of individuals. Intestinal phages are an essential component of the gut microbiome, but most studies predominantly focus on the structure and dynamics of gut bacteria while neglecting the role of phages in shaping the gut microbiome. As bacteria-killing viruses, the distribution of bacteriophages in the intestine, their role in influencing the intestinal microbiota, and their mechanisms of action remain elusive. Herein, we present an overview of the current knowledge of gut phages, their lifestyles, identification, and potential impact on the gut microbiota.
PubMed: 38585689
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379382