title: Effectiveness of CT for clinical stratification of occupational lung edema.
abstract: We treated two occupational lung diseases in different situations during military training. The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability of CT scanning for the evaluation of inhalation pulmonary edema. Two soldiers suffered severe lung edema after using a spray for the daily maintenance of their firearms. Four soldiers suffered severe dyspnea after undertaking drills in a narrow zone where numerous smoke bombs had been used. We evaluated these patients from several aspects. CT scans of the chest of spray-induced patients revealed bilateral infiltration predominantly in the upper lung fields. The patients received steroid pulse treatment and gradually recovered. CT scans of the chest of smoke-induced patients revealed bilateral ground-glass attenuation with peripheral lung sparing. The patients gradually recovered with steroid therapy. In accordance with previous studies, CT scans of the chest in our patients demonstrated that the periphery of the lungs remained normal, except in cases of serious injury. When differential diagnosis is required, we consider that CT scans of the chest are particularly useful; CT findings are useful in determining the severity of lung injury as well as the diagnosis of inhalation pulmonary edema.
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental Medicine, National Defense Medical College Research Institute, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-8513, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Keisaku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yasuhide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uwabe
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otsuka
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004417:Dyspnea; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure; D007564:Japan; D008889:Military Personnel; D009784:Occupational Diseases; D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene / Q000009:adverse effects; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene