tailieunhanh - Báo cáo y học: "Assessing and Treating Work-Related Asthma"

Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học General Psychiatry cung cấp cho các bạn kiến thức về ngành y đề tài: Assessing and Treating Work-Related Asthma. | ORIGINAL ARTICLE Assessing and Treating Work-Related Asthma Tracy Stoughton MD Michael Prematta MD and Timothy Craig DO Work-related asthma is asthma that is caused or exacerbated by exposures at work. It is the most common form of occupational lung disease in developed countries. It has important impacts on the health and well-being of the affected individual as well as consequences for society because of unemployment issues and workers compensation claims. With ongoing exposure occupational asthma can result in persistent airway hyperresponsiveness and possibly permanent disability for the individual. Thus it is important for the clinician to be able to diagnose this disorder as quickly and accurately as possible. The evaluation of a patient with work-related asthma can be extensive. It includes obtaining a consistent history identifying the cause in the workplace and confirming the diagnosis with objective tests. After a diagnosis has been made treatment must sometimes go beyond the medications used for nonoccupational asthma and include interventions to minimize or completely remove the individual from exposure to the causal agent if he or she has sensitizer-induced occupational asthma. In addition once an individual has been identified with occupational asthma steps should be taken to prevent the development of this disorder in other workers. The purpose of this article is to review the current literature and provide the clinician with a stepwise approach to the diagnosis and management of a patient with work-related asthma. Key words airways asthma diagnosis irritant occupational review sensitizer treatment work ork-related asthma is defined as asthma that is either attributable to or exacerbated by workplace environmental exposures. It encompasses two separate but related clinical entities occupational asthma OA and work-aggravated asthma WAA .1 In both circumstances the work environment contributes to the symptoms of asthma. However OA is defined as asthma