Six month follow-up of fourteen victims with short-term exposure to chlorine gas.
Fourteen cases, 5 with pre-existing COAD, exposed to up to 30 p.p.m. chlorine gas in an accidental leakage, were followed up clinically, radiologically and by spirometry at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 6 months. All the patients were asymptomatic by 2 weeks and did not reveal any radiological abnormality. The FVC, FEV1 and FVC observed/predicted improved at 4 weeks (p less than 0.05, p less than 0.05, p less than 0.01) and the improvement in FEF0.25-0.75 reached statistical significance (p less than 0.05) at 6 months. The mean improvement in FVC was 0.84 l and FEV1 was 0.6 l at 4 weeks. The 5 patients with pre-existing COAD did not show any evidence of additional lung damage. The observations have been consistent with acute tracheobronchitis with trends towards complete recovery.
Abhyankar
A
A
Bhambure
N
N
Kamath
N N
NN
Pajankar
S P
SP
Nabar
S T
ST
Shrenivas
A
A
Shah
A C
AC
Deshmukh
S N
SN
D000328:Adult; D002713:Chlorine / Q000506:poisoning*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005739:Gas Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013147:Spirometry; D013997:Time Factors
D002713:Chlorine