title: Long-term ocular consequences of sulfur mustard in lung-injured war veterans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ocular and pulmonary involvement are the most important complications of sulfur mustard (SM) that may happen many years after exposure. This study aims to evaluate the severity of ocular involvement and the correlation between late ocular and lung complications in patients exposed to SM.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on SM lung-injured war veterans. Status of pulmonary involvement was categorized into normal, mild, moderate, and severe based on the "Forced Expiratory Volume in first second (FEV1)".Status of ocular involvement was also categorized into normal, mild, moderate, and severe, based on the slit lamp findings. Correlation between pulmonary and ocular involvements was evaluated by Spearman rank correlation test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Totally, 292 war veterans with clinical pulmonary involvement were included in the study. Status of pulmonary involvement was 3.8% normal, 11.2% mild, 16.1% moderate, and 68.9% severe. Status of the ocular involvement was 68.2% normal, 13.8% mild, 5.4% moderate, and 12.6% severe. Among all patients, 96.3% had pulmonary involvement and 32.5% had ocular involvement. There was a positive correlation between the severity of ocular and pulmonary involvements (p = 0.049 and r = 0.122).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study showed that although there was a positive correlation between the severity of pulmonary and ocular involvement, this correlation was weak. This might be due to the nature of the studied population or differences in the tissue susceptibilities, gas types, or exposure patterns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Shahed University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. ghasemi518@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
authors.forename: Tooba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ghazanfari
authors.forename: Roya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yaraee
authors.forename: Alireza Baradaran
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Rafii
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pourfarzam
authors.forename: Mohammad-Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Soroush
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Babaei
authors.forename: Soghrat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Faghihzadeh
authors.forename: Mohammad-Mehdi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Naghizadeh
authors.forename: Zuhair Mohammad
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D055370:Lung Injury / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009151:Mustard Gas / Q000633:toxicity*; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D014728:Veterans
chemical_list: D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents; D009151:Mustard Gas