Diagnosis and treatment of occupational asthma

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Dr. Phan Dinh Thuy Tien - General Internal Medicine - Department of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital.
Occupational asthma is a general form of asthma. Causes of disease are all or part of agents in the workplace and not due to causes outside the work environment. The disease needs to be diagnosed and treated early to avoid serious complications for the patient in the future.

1. What is occupational asthma?

Occupational bronchial asthma is a disease characterized by airflow limitation, changes, or bronchial hyperresponsiveness, inflammation due to a particularly predisposing occupational environmental condition, not due to external stimuli. causing. We need to clearly distinguish the concept of occupational asthma from asthma flared by workplace triggers, and that variants of asthma such as eosinophilic bronchitis can develop in humans. pre-existing bronchial asthma or not.
The number of people with occupational asthma accounts for 10-25% of asthma patients. Of which, about 5% of patients develop occupational asthma when exposed to high-molecular-weight agents, the remaining 5-10% get sick when exposed to low-molecular-weight agents.

2. Diagnosis of occupational asthma

Occupational asthma is diagnosed by the following clinical and subclinical manifestations:
Through the exposure factor, the patient is diagnosed with occupational asthma or not. Patients breathe in sensitizing or irritating agents in the working environment such as dust, vapors, toxic gases... Patients with bronchial asthma will also have clinical manifestations after being exposed to the causative agent. The disease is an obvious asthma attack during work and production.
For subclinical manifestations, based on the following symptoms, occupational asthma can be diagnosed:
Change in respiratory function: the patient has signs of obstruction during an asthma attack, measuring vital capacity (FVC) and maximum expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), during an asthma attack the flow falls below 70% and after an asthma attack will gradually increase to above 80% of the theoretical value. Occupational asthma can be diagnosed by the skin prick test method, which gives a positive result after 15-30 minutes. The asthmatic test method causes a bronchoconstrictive response to non-specific histamine or methacholin. asthma with an asthma-causing allergen in a patient. This is the most specific and certain test to identify occupational asthma and occupational asthma triggers in patients. By the above diagnostic methods based on both clinical and subclinical, patients will be accurately diagnosed with occupational asthma.

3. Treatment of occupational asthma

For the treatment of occupational asthma, the patient needs to be desensitized. Although this method has limitations, it still has good effects for people who cannot completely stop being exposed to the working environment containing allergens that cause asthma.
Simultaneous use of drugs, mainly bronchodilators in acute asthma attacks. In severe cases, corticosteroids, cough suppressants, expectorants, vitamins of all kinds, can be used to improve health.
Occupational asthma should best be prevented from the beginning to limit and avoid unnecessary dangers to patients during work and production. The disease can be effectively prevented in the following ways:
Install ventilation, dust extraction, and toxic fumes in the workplace and in general Investigate possible occupational asthma hazards for employees, understand the list of allergens that can cause disease in production Organize recruitment examination, eliminate subjects with chronic skin diseases, atopic sensitivities, family history of asthma ... In addition, skin testing can be done during recruitment to help reduce the incidence of occupational asthma in the workplace. Detect early asthma induction, detect bronchial obstruction by measuring expiratory volume before and after work. Mechanization, automation, closed production labor for the production process Gradually replace raw materials with high risk of becoming allergens that cause disease for workers Bronchial asthma if not diagnosed and controlled. Strict control will cause many serious consequences such as acute and malignant dyspnoea, even death. Currently, Vinmec International General Hospital has Vinmec's asthma screening package to help customers:
Screening for early detection to promptly control and treat the disease Perform clinical examination, ask medical history , measure respiratory function, otolaryngology examination and screening for bronchial asthma. Doctor Thuy Tien has 18 years of experience in medical examination and treatment. Currently working as a General Internal Medicine Doctor, Department of Medical Examination and Internal Medicine, Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.