Long-term follow-up of beryllium sensitized workers from a single employer
Up to 12% of beryllium-exposed American workers would test positive on beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) screening, but the implications of sensitization remain uncertain.
Methods: Seventy two current and former employees of a beryllium manufacturer, including 22 with pathologic changes of chronic beryllium disease (CBD), and 50 without, with a confirmed positive test were followed-up for 7.4 +/-3.1 years.
Results: Beyond predicted effects of aging, flow rates and lung volumes changed little from baseline, while DLCO dropped 17.4% of predicted on average. Despite this group decline, only 8 subjects (11.1%) demonstrated physiologic or radiologic abnormalities typical of CBD.
Other than baseline status, no clinical or laboratory feature distinguished those who clinically manifested CBD at follow-up from those who did not.
Conclusions: The clinical outlook remains favorable for beryllium-sensitized individuals over the first 5-12 years. However, declines in DLCO may presage further and more serious clinical manifestations in the future.
These conclusions are tempered by the possibility of selection bias and other study limitations.
Author: Mona DuggalDavid DeubnerAnne CurtisMark Cullen
Credits/Source: BMC Public Health 2010, 10:5
Published on: 2010-01-04
Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please
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