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A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members

A 39-year-old undocumented male immigrant with occupational exposure to quartz, without significant medical history, presented with worsening cough, dyspnea, and weight loss for the past six months, with onset of symptoms starting two years ago. The patient was exposed to silicon dioxide for the pas...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Patino, Sara, Izquierdo-Pretel, Guillermo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9351817/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35936157
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26587
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author Patino, Sara
Izquierdo-Pretel, Guillermo
author_facet Patino, Sara
Izquierdo-Pretel, Guillermo
author_sort Patino, Sara
collection PubMed
description A 39-year-old undocumented male immigrant with occupational exposure to quartz, without significant medical history, presented with worsening cough, dyspnea, and weight loss for the past six months, with onset of symptoms starting two years ago. The patient was exposed to silicon dioxide for the past 10 years due to his occupation. Chest x-ray at the time of diagnosis reflected multifocal heterogeneous opacities; CT of the chest demonstrated eggshell calcifications and conglomerate opacities particularly involving the bilateral upper lobes. Transbronchial biopsy reflected non-necrotizing granulomatous inflammation. In the context of silica dust exposure, these findings suggest the diagnosis of accelerated silicosis. This case report seeks to bring attention to the potential increased risk of occupational diseases in the community members who have high exposure to environmental hazards.
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spelling pubmed-93518172022-08-05 A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members Patino, Sara Izquierdo-Pretel, Guillermo Cureus Internal Medicine A 39-year-old undocumented male immigrant with occupational exposure to quartz, without significant medical history, presented with worsening cough, dyspnea, and weight loss for the past six months, with onset of symptoms starting two years ago. The patient was exposed to silicon dioxide for the past 10 years due to his occupation. Chest x-ray at the time of diagnosis reflected multifocal heterogeneous opacities; CT of the chest demonstrated eggshell calcifications and conglomerate opacities particularly involving the bilateral upper lobes. Transbronchial biopsy reflected non-necrotizing granulomatous inflammation. In the context of silica dust exposure, these findings suggest the diagnosis of accelerated silicosis. This case report seeks to bring attention to the potential increased risk of occupational diseases in the community members who have high exposure to environmental hazards. Cureus 2022-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9351817/ /pubmed/35936157 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26587 Text en Copyright © 2022, Patino et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Internal Medicine
Patino, Sara
Izquierdo-Pretel, Guillermo
A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title_full A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title_fullStr A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title_full_unstemmed A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title_short A Case Report of Accelerated Pulmonary Silicosis: Hazardous Exposure in Underrepresented Community Members
title_sort case report of accelerated pulmonary silicosis: hazardous exposure in underrepresented community members
topic Internal Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9351817/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35936157
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26587
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