Context.—: The pathology of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) and its most severe form-progressive massive fibrosis (PMF)-in US coal miners has changed in recent years. Severe disease is occurring in younger miners and has been linked to an increase in silica dust exposure.
Objective.—: To update the description of the pathologic features of CWP in contemporary miners compared to historical miners.
Design.—: This study is a retrospective expert classification of lung tissue from 85 historical and contemporary coal miners with PMF. Significant pathologic features were scored by using a standardized instrument with consensus achieved for major findings, including newly defined categories of PMF as coal-type, mixed-type, and silica-type.
Results.—: Pathologic features associated with silica dust exposure, including silica-type PMF, mineral dust alveolar proteinosis (MDAP), and immature (early stage) silicotic nodules, were increased in contemporary miners. Detailed descriptions of the pathology of contemporary CWP with illustrative figures are provided.
Conclusions.—: Silica-related pathologies are more common in contemporary miners. Severe forms of CWP can be detected by subtyping PMF lesions (if present) or by identification of mature and immature silicotic nodules, coal mine dust-related alveolar proteinosis, and severe inflammation in coal miners' lungs. Silica-type PMF cases showed significantly higher levels of MDAP than either mixed- or coal-type PMF (P < .001). High profusion of birefringent silica/silicate particles was observed more frequently in cases with immature (early stage) silicotic nodules (P = .04). Severe inflammation was also significantly increased in contemporary miners (P = .03). Our findings underscore the urgent need to revise current exposure limits and monitoring of respirable crystalline silica in US coal mines.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.5858/arpa.2022-0491-OA | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Fractures by race and ethnicity in a diverse sample of postmenopausal women: a current evaluation among Hispanic and Asian origin groups.
J Bone Miner Res
September 2024
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, United States.
Using 1998-2022 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) data, our study provides contemporary fracture data by race and ethnicity, specifically focusing on Hispanic and Asian women. Fractures of interest included any clinical, hip, and major osteoporotic fractures (MOFs). We utilized the updated race and ethnicity information collected in 2003, which included seven Asian and five Hispanic origin groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThin seams and small mines are associated with higher exposures to respirable crystalline silica in US underground coal mines.
Occup Environ Med
July 2024
School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Article Synopsis
- Previous studies indicate that overexposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is linked to the rising cases of pneumoconiosis among US coal miners, particularly severe cases in Central Appalachia.
- Our analysis of RCS levels from coal mine dust data (1982-2021) shows that mines in Central Appalachia had consistently higher respirable quartz levels compared to other regions.
- Despite a significant decrease in respirable quartz concentrations over time, factors like mine size, location, and safety practices still contribute to heightened RCS exposure, supporting the connection to coal workers' pneumoconiosis resurgence.
Fracture risk prediction in postmenopausal women with traditional and machine learning models in a nationwide, prospective cohort study in Switzerland with validation in the UK Biobank.
J Bone Miner Res
August 2024
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Fracture prediction is essential in managing patients with osteoporosis and is an integral component of many fracture prevention guidelines. We aimed to identify the most relevant clinical fracture risk factors in contemporary populations by training and validating short- and long-term fracture risk prediction models in 2 cohorts. We used traditional and machine learning survival models to predict risks of vertebral, hip, and any fractures on the basis of clinical risk factors, T-scores, and treatment history among participants in a nationwide Swiss Osteoporosis Registry (N = 5944 postmenopausal women, median follow-up of 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultidisciplinary surgical considerations for en bloc resection of sacral chordoma: review of recent advances and a contemporary single-center series.
Neurosurg Focus
May 2024
Departments of1Neurosurgery and.
Objective: Contemporary management of sacral chordomas requires maximizing the potential for recurrence-free and overall survival while minimizing treatment morbidity. En bloc resection can be performed at various levels of the sacrum, with tumor location and volume ultimately dictating the necessary extent of resection and subsequent tissue reconstruction. Because tumor resection involving the upper sacrum may be quite destabilizing, other pertinent considerations relate to instrumentation and subsequent tissue reconstruction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBohemia at the Pacific seabed: Archiving the future of deep-sea mining with the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization.
Soc Stud Sci
October 2024
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
This article uses historical and ethnographic methods to examine the primarily East-Central European Interoceanmetal Joint Organization (IOM). I ask how and why the IOM has survived as an institution since its inception in 1987, working especially with the personal archive of Vratislav Kubišta. Kubišta was a metallurgist and former Deputy Director General at IOM who after retirement sought to develop a local deep-sea mining museum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!