title: Is mild byssinosis associated with small airways disease?
abstract: Attempts were made to determine if, in the mild stage of byssinosis, there are changes located to small airways and if bronchial reactivity is increased. Twenty-two cotton workers from two cotton mills outside Gothenburg were studied, 6 non-smokers without a history of byssinosis and 16 mild byssinotics, 10 of whom were smokers. They were examined before a Monday shift and then re-examined after another Monday shift, one or two weeks later. Spirometry, lung volumes, the single-breath nitrogen wash-out test and the maximum expiratory flows after air and helium-oxygen breathing were obtained. The bronchial reactivity to methacholine was also assessed before and after shift. We found no indication of deteriorated test values in the non-smoking group regardless of symptoms of byssinosis. However, the reactivity to methacholine was clearly increased compared to a control group. We conclude that changes of small airways are probably not characteristic for mild byssinosis and therefore probably not the predominant location of byssinotic lung changes.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001980:Bronchi / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D002095:Byssinosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008688:Methacholine Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012907:Smoking
chemical_list: D008688:Methacholine Compounds