[Occupational lung diseases other than asbestos- and indium-related disease].

In our country, pneumoconiosis used to hold an overwhelmingly majority in respiratory occupational lung diseases. Although the number of pneumoconiosis cases has been decreasing certainly, new cases have been arising even today. In addition, in place of pneumoconiosis or asbestos-related diseases, occupational asthma has become the most common forms of occupational lung disease in many industrialized countries.

Progression of pneumoconiosis in coal miners after cessation of dust exposure: a longitudinal study based on periodic chest X-ray examinations in Hokkaido, Japan.

Background: The progression rate of pneumoconiosis in retired coal miners over ten years has not been studied in Japan.

Methods: A retrospective longitudinal study was undertaken using chest X-rays of 1091 pneumoconiosis subjects in Hokkaido, Japan between 1985 and 2005.

Results: The final numbers of subjects were 207 (19% of the entry) after 1 decade and 85 (8%) after 2 decades.

Clinical study of asbestos-related lung cancer in Japan with special reference to occupational history.

A total of 152 patients with asbestos-related lung cancer recognized by the criteria of Japanese compensation law for asbestos-related diseases were examined and compared with 431 patients with non-asbestos-related lung cancer. Male comprised 96% of patients. Ages ranged from 50 to 91 years with a median of 72 years.

Mannose-binding lectin gene polymorphisms and the development of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in Japan.

Background: Infection, immunity and genetic factors play roles in the development of coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP) and progressive massive fibrosis (PMF). We investigate whether the genetic polymorphisms of mannose-binding lectin (MBL), one of the key molecules of innate immunity, is associated with the susceptibility to CWP.

Method: MBL2 polymorphisms (codon54, promoter -221, and -550) were assessed for 197 patients with CWP (119 with nodular CWP and 78 with PMF) and 153 unexposed regional controls.

Primary peripheral adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lung and literature comparison of features.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma arising from the peripheral lung is rare. Here, we describe adenoid cystic carcinoma that developed in the peripherally in S(9) of the right lower lobe of an 84-year-old woman. Cell blocks prepared from the bronchial wash specimens exhibited the cribriform formation.

Comparison of MET-PET and FDG-PET for differentiation between benign lesions and lung cancer in pneumoconiosis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the ability of C-11-methionine (MET) and F-18 fluoro-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to diagnose lung cancer in patients with pneumoconiosis.

Methods: Twenty-six subjects underwent both whole-body MET-PET and FDG-PET on the same day. The first group was a lung cancer group, which consisted of 15 patients, and included those with pneumoconiosis with increased nodules (13 cases), hemoptysis (1 case), and positive sputum cytology (1 case).

[Microbiologically identified isolates of Mycobacterium heckeshornense in two patients].

Purpose: To identify mycobacteria isolated from sputa of a 51-year-old female and a 72-year-old male patient with pneumoconiosis.

Object And Method: Mycobacteria species were isolated from sputa of a 51-year-old female. The culture was always negative in spite of positive smears before the final isolation in 1988.

[Clinical analysis of home oxygen therapy in patients with pneumoconiosis at Iwamizawa Rosai Hospital].

Although home oxygen therapy (HOT) has become one of the standard therapies in the management of chronic respiratory failure, especially for patient with hypoxia, there are very few studies about HOT in patients with pneumoconiosis. Therefore, we clinically investigated the characteristics of 97 patients with pneumoconiosis and 30 patients with COPD on home oxygen therapy (HOT) followed at Iwamizawa Rosai Hospital during the period from 1990 to 2003. The mean survival time in patients with pneumoconiosis (42 months) by the Kaplan-Meier method was shorter than in patents with COPD (75 months).

Antithetical effect of tumor necrosis factor-alphagene polymorphism on coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP).

Background: Inter-individual variation in the severity of pneumoconiosis has been described, even with the same environmental exposure. We hypothesized that TNF-alpha promoter polymorphisms associate with lung responses to environmental exposure in coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP) patients.

Methods: We examined polymorphisms at -238, -308, and -376 in 124 patients with CWP who had similar dust exposure history and in 122 non-exposed controls.

[A case of chronic pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis].

In a 43-year-old Japanese Brazilian who came to Japan in 2001, since subjective symptoms such as cough, sputum, and dyspnea on exertion had become severe, he was referred to our hospital because of suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis in chest radiography and CT findings. A chest radiograph of initial examination showed interstitial shadows in both lungs with nodular, infiltrative or cavitary changes. No Mycobacterium tuberculosis was found.