Chest
Occupational and Environmental Lung DiseaseSuberosis: Clinical Study and New Etiologic Agents in a Series of Eight Patients
Section snippets
Study Population
Eight patients (five women) with a mean age (± SD) of 36.8 ± 9 years (range, 26 to 57 years) who fulfilled diagnostic criteria for suberosis10 were retrospectively studied. All but one of the patients received a diagnosis at our occupational respiratory disease unit between 1982 and 2000. The other patient (case 6) received a diagnosis in 1982.6 At the time of diagnosis, all patients were actively working in cork manufacturing industries in the province of Gerona (Catalonia) and all presented
Clinical Data and Test Results
Clinical data and test results are shown in Table 1. At the time of diagnosis, the patients had presented symptoms for a mean of 2.6 years (range, 0.5 to 5 years). Characteristically, symptoms began halfway through the working day or at the end of the evening shift and remitted or improved at weekends or during holidays. Evolution was highly favorable in all patients after a mean antigen avoidance period of 14.2 months (range, 4 to 26 months); 50% of patients (cases 1, 4, 6, and 8) remained
Discussion
The present work describes the clinical, analytic, and radiologic features, as well as immunologic test responses of a well-characterized group of patients with suberosis, and is one of very few articles published to date on this subject. The study shows that besides P frequentans, A fumigatus, and cork itself, uncontaminated by fungi, may participate in the etiopathogenesis of suberosis in some patients.
The etiology of cork dust-induced hypersensitivity pneumonitis has been attributed to the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Christine O’Hara for English translation of the manuscript, and María-Dolores Untoria, a member of the nursing staff, for laboratory analysis.
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This study was financed in part by grant FISS 90/0941, and Red Respira (Instituto Carlos III. Fis RTYC-C03/11), SEPAR.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (e-mail: [email protected]).