Description of a specific bronchial provocation test for the diagnosis of occupational asthma due to platinum salts.

Background: Occupational exposure to platinum salts may cause the onset of skin and respiratory disorders with an IgE-mediated allergic mechanism. The diagnosis of occupational asthma due to platinum salts was, in a small number of cases, achieved also via occupational specific bronchial provocation tests (sBPT), which until now were conducted by pouring platinum salt dusts from one tray to another or by direct aerosoling of hexachloroplatinate solutions into the patient's airways.

Methods: Here we describe an original occupational sBPT based on atomization of solutions of ammonium hexachloroplatinate, at increasing concentrations, in a 5 m3 challenge room: the starting solution is a 1:100 dilution of the preset threshold of the patient's skin reactivity to the substance.

[Cancer screening programme in health care workers].

From the 2002 through 2009 years 419 health care workers of the Hospital of Lecco, occupationally exposed to X-ray, were invited to undergo a cancer screening programme for the early diagnosis of cervical, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. A total of 341 subjects performed the screening tests with an overall compliance of 83,8%; the participation rate to each test was significantly higher than that of general population. Breast cancer was diagnosed and treated in 5 women, cervical premalignant lesions in 8 women and colorectal adenomas in 13 subjects; no prostate cancer was detected.

[Vascular thrombosis and pulmonary thrombo-embolism due to harness suspension].

Background: In many sports (such as rock-climbing and caving) and working activities (e.g., construction and maintenance of buildings, pruning of lung-trunked trees, abseiling in wells) people run the risk of falling from a height.

[Occupational allergic IgE-mediated disease from Boletus edulis: case report].

Background: Fungal components can cause allergic symptoms either through inhalation, ingestion or contact. Allergic disease from occupational exposure to Boletus edulis (BE) has only seldom been reported.

Objectives: Report on a female worker who developed respiratory and skin symptoms from occupational exposure to BE in selecting and packing dried mushrooms.