Volume-based tomography for the diagnosis of incipient silicosis in former gold miners.

Objective: To evaluate silicosis diagnosed through CT, with integration of clinical-occupational data, in silica-exposed workers presenting chest X-rays within International Labor Organization (ILO) category 0.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 339 former gold miners, with comparable exposures and X-rays classified as ILO subcategory 0/0 (n=285) and 0/1 (n=54) were submitted to volume-based CT. The findings were classified according to the International Classification of HRCT CT for Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Diseases.