[Identification and evaluation of liver damage in subjects exposed to occupational risk from general anesthetics].

Background: The program Hepascore was produced by an interdisciplinary group working in the Laboratory of Clinical Informatics of the San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Turin with the aim of supporting physicians in the early diagnosis of hepatic damage and in its qualitative and quantitative characterization. The methodology used by this program can be useful especially for investigations concerning Industrial Medicine, which intend to control the occupational risk due to environmental exposure, not only to perform an early diagnosis (secondary prevention), but also to control the temporal evolution of the disease, by comparing significant data in a reproducible way.

Objective: This study was conducted with the aim of monitoring, by using the screening protocol of Hepascore, a group of workers exposed to an occupational risk by general anaesthetics, assessing the reliability of the proposed model and comparing it to the conventional approach in a cost/effectiveness analysis.

[Degree of hepatitis C infection risk in the health care setting].

Background: Hepatitis C virus is the most important aetiologic agent for non A-non B hepatitis. The study of the prevalence of hepatitis C in health care workers is of primary interest because of the possible chronic evolution and the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of HCV among health care workers in 5 main hospitals and local health units in Turin and analyze the influence of occupational and non occupational risk factors.

[Hearing disability in relation to audiometric threshold values: hypothesis on the determination of the onset of hearing loss].

Background: The term auditory disability (AD) means the presence of auditory symptoms due to hearing loss. Until now the audiometric threshold cut-off between the presence or absence of AD was not clear.

Objectives: In this study we attempted to define the value of audiometric threshold that could be considered as the limit between the presence or absence of weakness of auditory function, considered as the threshold as the 95th percentile of subjects that did not report AD.

[Nasal patency patterns observed during working hours in a group of technicians habitually exposed to formaldehyde].

Formaldehyde is a substance which is widely used in several work fields, including many medical and biological sectors. It appears that formaldehyde exposure may cause bronchial asthma. Little information is available, however, with regard to upper aereal tracts.

[Relationship between auditory disability and auditory threshold in acute acoustic trauma: pilot study].

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship existing between auditory disability, according to WHO 1980, and pure tone audiometry threshold in noise induced hearing loss. Disability was evaluated on the basis of a questionnaire submitted to 286 subjects with acoustic trauma. Answers obtained were considered reliable on the basis of statistical analysis.