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A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman

BACKGROUND: Prolonged exposure to hand-transmitted vibration is associated with an increased occurrence of symptoms and signs of disorders in the vascular, neurological and osteoarticular systems of the upper limbs. However, the available epidemiological evidence is derived from studies on high vibr...

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Autores principales: Mattioli, Stefano, Graziosi, Francesca, Bonfiglioli, Roberta, Barbieri, Giuseppe, Bernardelli, Sandra, Acquafresca, Luciano, Violante, Francesco S, Farioli, Andrea, Hagberg, Mats
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21320318
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-12-47
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author Mattioli, Stefano
Graziosi, Francesca
Bonfiglioli, Roberta
Barbieri, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Sandra
Acquafresca, Luciano
Violante, Francesco S
Farioli, Andrea
Hagberg, Mats
author_facet Mattioli, Stefano
Graziosi, Francesca
Bonfiglioli, Roberta
Barbieri, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Sandra
Acquafresca, Luciano
Violante, Francesco S
Farioli, Andrea
Hagberg, Mats
author_sort Mattioli, Stefano
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Prolonged exposure to hand-transmitted vibration is associated with an increased occurrence of symptoms and signs of disorders in the vascular, neurological and osteoarticular systems of the upper limbs. However, the available epidemiological evidence is derived from studies on high vibration levels caused by vibratory tools, whereas little is known about possible upper limb disorders caused by chronic exposure to low vibration levels emitted by fixed sources. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a postwoman who delivered mail for 15 years using a low-powered motorcycle. The woman was in good health until 2002, when she was diagnosed with bilateral Raynaud's phenomenon. In March 2003 a bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome was electromyographically diagnosed; surgical treatment was ineffective. Further examinations in 2005 highlighted the presence of chronic tendonitis (right middle finger flexor). RISK ASSESSMENT: From 1987, for 15 years, our patient rode her motorcycle for 4 h/day, carrying a load of 20-30 kg. For about a quarter of the time she drove over country roads. Using the information collected about the tasks carried out every day by the postwoman and some measurements performed on both handles of the motorcycle, as well as on both iron parts of the handlebars, we reconstructed the woman's previous exposure to hand-arm vibration. 8-hour energy-equivalent frequency weighted acceleration was about 2.4 m/s(2). The lifetime dose was 1.5 × 10(9)(m(2)/s(4))hd. CONCLUSIONS: The particular set of comorbidities presented by our patient suggests a common pathophysiological basis for all the diseases. Considering the level of exposure to vibrations and the lack of specific knowledge on the effects of vibration in women, we hypothesize an association between the work exposure and the onset of the diseases.
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spelling pubmed-30453972011-02-26 A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman Mattioli, Stefano Graziosi, Francesca Bonfiglioli, Roberta Barbieri, Giuseppe Bernardelli, Sandra Acquafresca, Luciano Violante, Francesco S Farioli, Andrea Hagberg, Mats BMC Musculoskelet Disord Case Report BACKGROUND: Prolonged exposure to hand-transmitted vibration is associated with an increased occurrence of symptoms and signs of disorders in the vascular, neurological and osteoarticular systems of the upper limbs. However, the available epidemiological evidence is derived from studies on high vibration levels caused by vibratory tools, whereas little is known about possible upper limb disorders caused by chronic exposure to low vibration levels emitted by fixed sources. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a postwoman who delivered mail for 15 years using a low-powered motorcycle. The woman was in good health until 2002, when she was diagnosed with bilateral Raynaud's phenomenon. In March 2003 a bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome was electromyographically diagnosed; surgical treatment was ineffective. Further examinations in 2005 highlighted the presence of chronic tendonitis (right middle finger flexor). RISK ASSESSMENT: From 1987, for 15 years, our patient rode her motorcycle for 4 h/day, carrying a load of 20-30 kg. For about a quarter of the time she drove over country roads. Using the information collected about the tasks carried out every day by the postwoman and some measurements performed on both handles of the motorcycle, as well as on both iron parts of the handlebars, we reconstructed the woman's previous exposure to hand-arm vibration. 8-hour energy-equivalent frequency weighted acceleration was about 2.4 m/s(2). The lifetime dose was 1.5 × 10(9)(m(2)/s(4))hd. CONCLUSIONS: The particular set of comorbidities presented by our patient suggests a common pathophysiological basis for all the diseases. Considering the level of exposure to vibrations and the lack of specific knowledge on the effects of vibration in women, we hypothesize an association between the work exposure and the onset of the diseases. BioMed Central 2011-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3045397/ /pubmed/21320318 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-12-47 Text en Copyright ©2011 Mattioli et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Case Report
Mattioli, Stefano
Graziosi, Francesca
Bonfiglioli, Roberta
Barbieri, Giuseppe
Bernardelli, Sandra
Acquafresca, Luciano
Violante, Francesco S
Farioli, Andrea
Hagberg, Mats
A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title_full A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title_fullStr A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title_full_unstemmed A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title_short A case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
title_sort case report of vibration-induced hand comorbidities in a postwoman
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045397/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21320318
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-12-47
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