Asbestos is a mineral-mined form the rocks, consisting in amosite (brown asbestos), crocidolite (blue asbestos) and÷or chrysotile (white asbestos) used in many industries. Researches about the exposure to asbestos dust and asbestosis related diseases started almost a century ago. The first case report of fatal asbestosis disease was published in 1906, in England, by Dr. Hubert Montague Murray. ...

I would like to comment on the article by Dr. Saleh and colleagues, which adds new information to the growing body of evidence about the negative effects of smoking on reproductive health (1). In 1998, two consecutive papers were published by our group dealing with the effects of smoking on human sperm viability via the seminal plasma factor and at the ultrastructural level of the sperm tail ax...

Secondhand smoke (SHS) causes premature death and disease in children and adults, and the scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to SHS. Smoking tobacco in a car can pollute the microenvironment of the car with residual SHS, leaving telltale signs to potential buyers (e.g., odor, used ash tray). This study examined (a) the proportion of used cars sold in the ...

A 54-year-old nonsmoker female developed atelectasis of the anterior basal segment of the right lower lobe. A non-pulsating endobronchial tumor was observed bronchoscopically obstructing the right basal bronchus. The tumor was confirmed on arteriography to be a saccular aneurysm of the right bronchial artery. The aneurysm was treated with bronchial artery embolization. Bronchial artery aneurysm...

We describe a case of an unusual fast growing lung micropapillary-predominant adenocarcinoma in a nonsmoker male patient without pre-existing lung disease. Adenocarcinomas have been described to be slow growing tumors, however our patient presented a fast-growing rate over a period of 21 days. When the patient failed broad spectrum antibiotic coverage, malignancy became part of the differential...

Second-hand smoking (passive smoking or environmental smoke exposure) refers to air inhaled by a nonsmoker that is contaminated by smoke released from a burning cigarette or in the exhaled air of a person smoking a cigarette. More than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 43 known cancer-causing agents, have been identified from environmental smoke.1 In 1993, the United States Environmental Prot...

Ms. P., a 62-year-old nonsmoker, was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma in April 2009. At the time of diagnosis, she underwent a left upper lobectomy for a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. Testing for epidermal growth factor receptor mutation revealed an exon 19 deletion, predicting a possible response for erlotinib (Tarceva). Following her lobectomy, Ms. P. received four cycles of cis...

Dr. Syed/Dr. Tiyas/Dr. Muralimohan (pulmonology). A 36-year-old male presented with dyspnea for 1 year, progressively increasing in severity, with recent onset of orthopnea. He had recurrent episodes of syncope, bilateral lower limb swelling, distended abdomen in the past 1 month. The patient did not have any history of a cough or fever. Furthermore, there was no history of any congenital heart...

A 38-yr-old male, nonsmoker has been followed for 13 yrs in the Dept of Neurology (AP-HM, Marseille, France) for treatment of multiple sclerosis. Until 2 yrs ago he had been treated with bolus of cyclophosphamide, and is currently being treated with 10 mg prednisolone per day, with significant neurological sequelae. His treatment includes prednisolone 10 mg q.d., dantrolene 100 mg t.i.d. (doubl...

Smoking has been recognized as a risk factor for pressure ulcer development. This study investigated the hypothesis that smoking causes alterations in cutaneous vascular perfusion, which may contribute to this increased risk. With the use of the laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF), the adaptive vasodilatory response to a transient pressure load at the sacrum was measured in nine healthy female smoke...