Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J Smitherman.
Folk remedies can be a significant unrecognized source of lead toxicity. This case report of lead toxicity due to Indian traditional herbal medicine illustrates that suspecting only occupational sources for lead poisoning in adults may mask a true source of lead exposure.
Traditional coding schemes for occupational health related factors (eg, SIC, SOC, CAS) are structured similarly as hierarchical, exclusive, and exhaustive systems. Each is limited to information of one particular type (eg, industry) and, therefore, the relationships implicit in the coding scheme are limited. This study empirically determined that "natural" coding schemes used by occupational health professionals do not share these characteristics but are more akin to semantic network data bases. There is therefore a need to re-evaluate how occupational data are to be coded.
The term "asbestosis" usually has been applied to a disease characterized by diffuse pulmonary interstitial fibrosis. It was often associated with a significant adverse impact on the individual. A review of case definitions employed in published research studies show stability of the criteria for asbestosis case definitions over the past decade. Nevertheless, additional modalities have been suggested for the early diagnosis of asbestosis. It is probable that the significance of such abnormalities may be different from that of usual asbestosis, and there is therefore a need to carefully define the manner in which the terms are used. Additional anomalies may be seen in asbestos-exposed individuals including small airway physiologic abnormality, pathologic evidence of inflammation near the airways, positive gallium scan, abnormal lung compliance, exercise test abnormalities, CAT scan findings, and high-resolution CAT scan findings.