Aluminium lung
Overview
A respiratory condition caused by breathing in aluminium containing substances such as aluminium ore or a grain preservative called aluminium phosphide. It is also called Pneumoconiosis, which is an occupational lung disease and a restrictive lung disease caused by the inhalation of dust, often in mines. In 2013 it resulted in 260,000 deaths up from 251,000 deaths in 1990. Of these deaths 46,000 were due to silicosis, 24,000 due to asbestosis and 25,000 due to coal workers pneumoconiosis.
Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:
- Coal worker's pneumoconiosis (also known as miner's lung, black lung or anthracosis) — coal, carbon
- Asbestosis — asbestos
- Silicosis (also known as "grinder's disease" or Potter's rot) — silica
- Bauxite fibrosis — bauxite
- Berylliosis — beryllium
- Siderosis — iron
- Byssinosis — cotton
- Silicosiderosis — mixed dust containing silica and iron
- Labrador lung (found in miners in Labrador, Canada) — mixed dust containing iron, silica and anthophyllite, a type of asbestos
- Stannosis — tin oxide
- Pneumoconiosis induced with the ash from the explosive volcano
Symptoms
- Pulmonary changes
- Emphysema
- Lung fibrosis
- Chronic bronchitis
- Shortness of breath during exercise
- Impaired lung function
Diagnosis
Positive indications on patient assessment:
- Shortness of breath
- Chest X-ray may show a characteristic patchy, subpleural, bibasilar interstitial infiltrates or small cystic radiolucencies called honeycombing.
Pneumoconiosis in combination with multiple pulmonary rheumatoid nodules in rheumatoid arthritis patients is known as Caplan's syndrome.
Following tests can also be performed
- Nicotine Test
- Home Lung Function Tests
- Lung Peak Flow Meters