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Work-Related Asthma

Aka: Work-Related Asthma, Occupational Asthma, Work-Aggravated Asthma, Asthma in the Workplace

Types
1. Work-Aggravated Asthma
  1. Preexisting Asthma worsened by workplace exposure
  2. See Intrinsic Asthma
2. Occupational Asthma
  1. Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome
  2. Allergic Occupational Asthma
Risk Factors
1. Atopy
2. Tobacco abuse
Approach
1. Diagnose Asthma
  1. Spirometry
2. Determine if Asthma is work related
  1. Pre-work and post-work Spirometry
  2. Serial peak expiratory flow log qid
3. Determine type of Occupational Asthma (see above)
Management
1. See Asthma Management
Prevention
1. Offending irritant or allergen exposure
2. Adequate respiratory protection
Resources
1. National Institute Occupational Safety Health (NIOSH)
  1. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
2. Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA)
  1. http://www.osha.gov/index.html
References

Family Practice Notebook

Patients should address specific medical concerns with their physicians.

Although access to this page is not restricted, the information found here is intended for use by medical providers.

This page was written by Scott Moses, MD, last revised on 10/21/2007 and last published on 6/18/2013.

This is one of 5909 pages in the Family Practice Notebook