Enlarged pulmonary artery is predicted by vascular injury biomarkers and is associated with WTC-Lung Injury in exposed fire fighters: a case-control study

We hypothesise that there is an association between an elevated pulmonary artery/aorta (PA/A) and World Trade Center-Lung Injury (WTC-LI). We assessed if serum vascular disease biomarkers were predictive of an elevated PA/A. Retrospective case-cohort analysis of thoracic CT scans of WTC-exposed fire...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2014-09, Vol.4 (9), p.e005575
Main Authors: Schenck, Edward J, Echevarria, Ghislaine C, Girvin, Francis G, Kwon, Sophia, Comfort, Ashley L, Rom, William N, Prezant, David J, Weiden, Michael D, Nolan, Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biomarkers
Biomarkers - blood
Body mass index
Case-Control Studies
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Coronary vessels
Demographics
Firefighters
Firefighters - statistics & numerical data
Fires
Forced Expiratory Volume
Humans
Inflammation
Lung diseases
Lung Injury - blood
Lung Injury - diagnostic imaging
Lung Injury - pathology
Male
Medical imaging
Middle Aged
Population
Pulmonary arteries
Pulmonary Artery - pathology
Respiratory Function Tests
Respiratory Medicine
Retrospective Studies
September 11 Terrorist Attacks - statistics & numerical data
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Veins & arteries
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Summary:We hypothesise that there is an association between an elevated pulmonary artery/aorta (PA/A) and World Trade Center-Lung Injury (WTC-LI). We assessed if serum vascular disease biomarkers were predictive of an elevated PA/A. Retrospective case-cohort analysis of thoracic CT scans of WTC-exposed firefighters who were symptomatic between 9/12/2001 and 3/10/2008. Quantification of vascular-associated biomarkers from serum collected within 200 days of exposure. Urban tertiary care centre and occupational healthcare centre. Male never-smoking firefighters with accurate pre-9/11 forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)≥75%, serum sampled ≤200 days of exposure was the baseline cohort (n=801). A subcohort (n=97) with available CT scans and serum biomarkers was identified. WTC-LI was defined as FEV1≤77% at the subspecialty pulmonary evaluation (n=34) and compared with controls (n=63) to determine the associated PA/A ratio. The subcohort was restratified based on PA/A≥0.92 (n=38) and PA/A
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005575