Blood Leukocyte Concentrations, FEV₁ Decline, and Airflow Limitation. A 15-Year Longitudinal Study of World Trade Center-exposed Firefighters.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Rescue/recovery work at the World Trade Center disaster site (WTC) caused a proximate decline in lung function in Fire Department of the City of New York firefighters. A subset of this cohort experienced an accelerated rate of lung function decline over 15 years of post-September 11, 2001 (9/11) follow-up.

Objectives

To determine if early postexposure blood leukocyte concentrations are biomarkers for subsequent FEV₁ decline and incident airflow limitation.

Methods

Individual rates of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁) change were calculated for 9,434 firefighters using 88,709 spirometric measurements taken between September 11, 2001, and September 10, 2016. We categorized FEV₁ change rates into three trajectories: ac

SUBMITTER: Zeig-Owens R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5802620 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature