1. Case Report of Occupational Asthma Induced by Polyvinyl Chloride and Nickel
- Author
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Young-Hee Nam, Ga-Won Song, Ga-Young Ban, Hae-Sim Park, and Young Min Ye
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Pathology ,Case Report ,Nitric Oxide ,Gastroenterology ,Bronchial Provocation Tests ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Leukocyte Count ,Immunology, Allergic Disorders & Rheumatology ,Nickel ,Plasticizers ,Internal medicine ,Occupational Exposure ,Eosinophilia ,Medicine ,Humans ,Asthma, Occupational ,Polyvinyl Chloride ,business.industry ,Plasticizer ,Exhalation ,General Medicine ,Environmental exposure ,Environmental Exposure ,Eosinophil ,respiratory system ,medicine.disease ,respiratory tract diseases ,Polyvinyl chloride ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Breath Tests ,Exhaled nitric oxide ,Sputum ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Occupational asthma - Abstract
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a widely used chemical for production of plastics. However occupational asthma (OA) caused by PVC has been reported only rarely. We report a 34-yr-old male wallpaper factory worker with OA due to PVC and nickel (Ni) whose job was mixing PVC with plasticizers. He visited the emergency room due to an asthma attack with moderate airflow obstruction and markedly increased sputum eosinophil numbers. A methacholine challenge test was positive (PC20 2.5 mg/mL). Bronchoprovocation tests with both PVC and Ni showed early and late asthmatic responses, respectively. Moreover, the fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) was increased after challenge with PVC. To our knowledge, this is the first case of OA in Korea induced by exposure to both PVC and Ni. We suggest that eosinophilic inflammation may be involved in the pathogenesis of PVC-induced OA and that FeNO monitoring can be used for its diagnosis.
- Published
- 2013