We experienced a case of occupational lead poisoning employed in a secondary lead smelting plant for 12 years. The patient was 39-year-old male and had been felt dizziness, recent memory impairment and intermittent severe abdominal pain for 2 years. On admission, blood lead level was 92.9 microgram/dl, urinary lead level was 19,9 microgram/l and zinc protoporphyrin level was 226.0 microgram/dl. On the blood test, hemoglobin was 10.6 g/dl and showed normocytic normochromic anemia. There were no abnormal findings in the biochemical and hormonal tests. Decrease of I.Q. and use of words in speaking were found in the psychiatric and psychologic examinations. We observed the finding of motor polyneuropathy in the nerve conduction velocity test. Computed tomographic finding showed calcification lesions in the basal ganglia, dentate nuclei, caudate nuclei, and especially characteristic multiple calcifications were located in the subcortical white matter.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Anemia ; Basal Ganglia ; Brain* ; Dizziness ; Hematologic Tests ; Humans ; Lead Poisoning* ; Male ; Memory ; Neural Conduction ; Osmeriformes ; Plants ; Polyneuropathies ; Zinc

In order to study the effect of welding fume exposure upon the pulmonary function test, we examined 131 shielded arc welding workers, and 152 CO2 arc welding workers as cases and 172 control workers for their general characteristics, and forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1.0) forced expiratory volume in one second as a percent of FVC(FEV1.0%), and maximal mid-expiratory flow (MMF) were obtained from in the spirogram. In shielded arc welding group and CO2 arc welding group, FVC, FEV1.0, FEV1.0%, and MMF were significantly decreased than control group, especially marked in the MMF finding. The distribution of workers below normal range was as follows: in the shielded arc welding group, 2 workers(l.5%) for FVC, 17 workers(13.0%) for FEV1.0, 5 workers(3.8%) for FEV1.0%, 28 workers(21.4%) for MMF, and in the CO2 arc welding group, 3 workers(2.0%) for FVC, 25 workers(16.4%) for FEV1.0, 8 workers(5.3%) for FEV1.0% and 37 workers(24.3%) for MMF, and significant increase by exposure duration was found in MMF. The distribution of workers who had ventilation impairment was as follows: 5 workers(3.8%) for obstructive type, 2 workers(l.5%) for restrictive type in the shielded arc welding group and, workers(4.6%) for obstructive type. 2 workers(l.3%) for restriotive type, and 1 worker(0.6%) was combined type of the CO2 arc welding group. In the respect of these results the significant pulmonary function and ventilatory impairment were observed in welding fume exposed workers who had not abnormal finding in chest X-ray, and MMF considered as the most sensitive pulmonary function index by welding fume exposure. Therefore even if it is hard to doing pulmonary function test in the first health examination of workers according to the Industrial Safety Health Act in the welding fume exposure workers. it is desirable to consider doing PFT. Also evaluating the ventilation impairment, it is necessary, to observe the change of MMF that marker of effort-independent portion.
Forced Expiratory Volume ; Reference Values ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Thorax ; Ventilation ; Vital Capacity ; Welding*

BACKGROUND: Endothelin(ET) is a very potent vasoconstrictive peptide produced by endothelial cells of pulmonary artery. The endothelin level was increased in plasma of primary pulmonary hypertension and acute pulmonary thromboembolism and it was suggested that the endothelin might do a critical role in the cardiopulmonary dysfunction in these two conditions. But the exact mechanism of increase of ET has not been known. In these two conditions, platelet activation and thrombosis are the main pathophysiologic findings. So there is a possibility that the platelet might stimulate endothelin secretion from endothelial cells. Therefore, we performed this study to evaluate the role of platelet and its mediators on endothelin production in bovine pulmonary artery endothelial(BPAE) cells. METHOD: Bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells, ATCC certified cell line 209, were cultured and treated with human platelets(106-108/ml), thrombin (0.1~10u/ml), TGF-beta1(1~1000pM), serotonin(1~100uM), and endotoxin(1ug/ml) in a final volume of 500ul for 18 hours. Levels of ir(immunoreactive)-ET in each conditiond medium were measured by a radioimmunoassay specific for ET. RESULT: The increase of ir-FT levels was platelet number and time dependent over 18 hours. When washed human platelets were added(108/ml), the ir-ET levels were significantly higher than that of control(p<0.05) at 8 and 18 hours after culture. Subtbreshold concentration of platelets(107ml) coincubated with endotoxin( lug/ml) or subtbreshold dose of thrombin(0.1u/ml) stimulated ir-ET secretion from BPAE cells significantiy(p<0.05) compared with control. Thrombin(1ug/ml, 10ug/ml) and TGF-beta1(100pM, 1000pM) significantly increased ir-ET secretion from BPAE cells(p<0.05) compared with control, but serotoin(1-100uM) and endotoxin(1ug/ml) did not stimulate the ir-ET secretion. CONCLUSIONS: Platelets stimulate endotheiin secretion from bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells. The mechanism of increase of endotheiin secretion seems to be a stimulation by platelet itself or by mediators, such as TGF-beta1, secreted from activated platelets. And, in this study, the priming effect of platelets on endothelin secretion from BPAE cells could be another possibility.
Blood Platelets ; Cell Line ; Endothelial Cells* ; Endothelins* ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary ; Plasma ; Platelet Activation ; Platelet Count ; Pulmonary Artery* ; Pulmonary Embolism ; Radioimmunoassay ; Thrombin ; Thrombosis ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1