Pulmonary disease associated with cafeteria flooding.
An illness among office workers, consisting of cough, fever, chills, muscle aches, and chest tightness was associated with water leaks from a cafeteria. Mean single breath carbon-monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO) of cases differed significantly from that of non-cases. There was a significant decrease in the percent of predicted DLCO with increasing number of symptoms. Testing for precipitating antibodies to microbial agents found in the building revealed no differences between cases and non-cases. DLCO is an appropriate cross-sectional instrument for field investigations of building-associated respiratory disease.
D001944:Breath Tests; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D002248:Carbon Monoxide