Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S C Stenton.
We report two subjects without previous evidence of asthma in whom wheeze, breathlessness and bronchial hyperresponsiveness occurred following an acute smoke inhalation injury.
Bronchoalveolar lavage was performed in eight patients with biopsy proved sarcoidosis and eight control subjects matched for age and smoking habit, three sequential 60 ml aliquots of sterile saline being used. Each aliquot was aspirated and analysed separately to determine total and differential cell counts. Cellular metabolic activity was stimulated with latex and measured by means of luminol enhanced chemiluminescence to assess neutrophil activity and lucigenin enhanced chemiluminescence to assess macrophage activity. In control subjects mean total cell counts were significantly greater in the second aspirate than in the first, but fell slightly in the third. Similarly, in the patients with sarcoidosis mean total cell counts increased from aspirate 1 to a maximum in aspirate 2, before falling again marginally in aspirate 3. The only significant difference in cell counts between patients with sarcoidosis and controls was an approximately threefold increase in total lymphocyte counts in the former in each of the three aspirates. Luminol chemiluminescence was similar in patients with sarcoidosis to that in controls in the first aspirate, but was significantly greater in the second and third aspirates. Lucigenin chemiluminescence was also significantly greater in the second and third aspirates only. Thus in patients with sarcoidosis lymphocyte numbers are increased in all three aspirates whereas cellular metabolic activity is increased to a greater extent in later aspirates, which may reflect events occurring in the periphery of the lung segment.
Research with sodium iso-nonanoyl oxybenzene sulphonate (SINOS) for use in a detergent product was complicated by the development of asthma in an atopic 38 year old laboratory technician. Inhalation challenge tests with nebulised SINOS solutions over a dose range of 0.01-32 micrograms gave reproducible late asthmatic reactions after the higher doses and an increase in bronchial responsiveness to methacholine. The magnitude of the late reaction was related to the challenge dose.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Early asthmatic responses to aeroallergens can be predicted from skin prick tests and the level of airway responsiveness. High-molecular-weight occupational agents ought to behave in the same way, but this has not been established sufficiently to allow challenge tests to be avoided. Responses to low-molecular-weight agents are difficult to predict because of the absence of a good measure of sensitization. Late responses appear more common with these agents, but this may be in part a consequence of the single-dose challenge protocol that is commonly used. The pattern of response also is likely to be influenced by the length of time from the last exposure, and the use of medication.
Bronchitis and emphysema have long been described as diseases of miners, but the precise contribution of occupational exposures to coal and other mine dusts in causing these disorders, as opposed to cofactors such as social class, environmental pollution, and cigarette smoking, has not been fully defined. Epidemiologic studies have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to determine the incidence and severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases in miners as compared to the general population. The results from these studies, and those in other nonmining industries with dust exposures, are examined.