Document YYye79e7OZ0KQxN7mg0nrr3V

Industrial Hygiene Digest - 36 January, 1950 Btage. The author emphasizes the acute Infection of the respiratory passages as the eliciting factor in asystole, the rapid festal course of asystole, the occasional presence, of signs of decompensation of the left ventricle and the Inefficiency of cardiotonic treatment vith digitalis and ouabain, necropsy vas performed on two of the patients; the anatomlcopathologlc examination revealed considerable dilatation and hypertrophy of the right ventricle and the right auricle. Die electrocardiograms of these three miners resembled . one another, and the author compares them with the electrocardiograms of 110 Blllcotlc Invalids who were still ambulant and not decompensated. He confirms the opinion that the electrocardiographic aspect of right pre dominance does not appear as an Initial sign of "cor pulmonale" in Silicosis. Ihe'roentgenologic signs of "car pulmonale" usually appear earlier than the electrocardiographic changes. -- Arch. Ind. Hyg.,& Occ. Med. Il6 Reaction to Carbon Dioxide in Pneumokonloals of Coal Miners. K.W. Donald. Clin, Sc. fa, p. 45 (19I#). : Confusion as to the relation of emphysema to pneumoconiosis prompted the author's study of the reactions of 56 patients with pneumoconiosis to four per cent carbon dioxide. The results of his observations led to the conclusion that an Impaired reaction to carbon dioxide .Is obtained only if true emphysema Is present. Although the Incidence of emphysema, with Impaired reaction to carbon dioxide, increases In those severely disabled by pneumoconiosis. It Is emphasized that a considerable number of mlnerB were extremely dyspnelc with no elgns of emphysema and a brisk reaction to carbon dioxide. If one accepts carbon' dioxide tolerance as a specific test fear emphysema, these results Indicate that In many cases of pneumoconiosis the dyspnea is not due to emphysema. The disability of the miners without emphysema (as Judged clinically, radlologlcally, and by their reaction to carbcn dioxide) appears to be little related to the severity of the pneumo coniosis, and this suggests that some other factor, which cannot be apprecia ted by radiologic examination. Is Involved. -- Condensed from Arch. Ihd.Hyg. & Occ. Med. 117 The Morphology of Bauxite-Fume Pneumoconiosis. J.P,, Wyatt and A.C.R. Riddell Am. J. Path. 25, p. 447 (May, 1949). A pulmonary disease Is associated with the manufacture of abrasive, powders, made up of an aluminum oxide of "corundum," resulting from the processing of a mix of finely ground bauxite. Iron and coke. Dense white fumes are evolved during the process, leading to contamination of the furnace rooms, where fatal conditions have resulted. The radiologic evi dence and the parenchymal fibrosis ~df the lung In this disease are eo startling and different Aram the findings In other pneumocanlotlc diseases that Shaver (who, with Riddell conducted an Industrial survey), characterized this dust disease as Individual and distinct from the more common silicosis. Die authors consider the amorphous alumina dust In concentration as the dominant etiologic agent, but state that the final answer will be obtained ' from studies. * -- Condensed from Arch. Ind. Hyg. & Occ. Med.