Elsevier

Clinics in Chest Medicine

Volume 23, Issue 4, December 2002, Pages 737-747
Clinics in Chest Medicine

New developments in work-related asthma

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-5231(02)00034-5Get rights and content

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Definitions

Work-related asthma (WRA) is a broad term that includes occupational asthma and work-aggravated asthma. Occupational asthma (OA) is defined as variable airflow limitation or airway hyperresponsiveness caused by exposure to a specific agent or conditions in a particular work environment, and not to stimuli encountered outside of the workplace [1]. This definition of OA includes asthma caused by immunologic sensitization to a specific agent, as well as asthma that results from nonsensitizing and

Diagnosis of work-related asthma

Recently, several reviews were published that provide a clinical approach toward patients with possible work-related asthma, as well as a discussion of some of the recent research advances in the field [2], [3], [4]. Several challenges remain in diagnosing WRA. Because specific inhalational challenge (SIC), the gold standard for sensitizer-induced OA, is unavailable in most of North America, imprecise clinical grounds are required to make the diagnosis in most cases [5]. Friedman-Jimenez and

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  • This work was supported by the Environmental and Molecular Epidemiology Training Grant T32 ES007262 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a clinical research trainee awards from the CHEST Foundation for Clinical Research in Asthma.

    1

    Present address: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, CHS 37-13, UCLA School of Medicine, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690, USA.

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