ktlight
21st July 2011, 08:44
FYI:
American doctors have diagnosed US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with an untreatable lung disease that is possibly caused by inhaling toxic material in the war zones.
According to a report published in the latest issue of New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Matthew S. King, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues diagnosed 80 American soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with a critical respiratory disorder that interferes with their ability to do physical exercise, Health Day News reported Thursday.
Forty-nine of them agreed to undergo the open lung biopsies. Of that number, 38 were diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis. Constrictive bronchiolitis is a rare non-reversible lung disease in which the small airways in the lungs are compressed and narrowed by scar tissue or inflammation.
The analysis also revealed that twenty-eight of the 38 American soldiers diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis had been exposed to a sulfur-mine fire near the Iraqi city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in 2003.
The American soldiers were evaluated from February 2004 through December 2009.
"Respiratory disorders are emerging as a major consequence of service in southwest Asia. In addition to our study, there have been studies showing increases in asthma, obstructive lung disease, allergic rhinitis and a general increase in reports of respiratory symptoms," Dr. King said.
"This is a very rare condition in otherwise healthy individuals and is generally untreatable. We believe that it is caused by an inhalational exposure with which they have contact while in southwest Asia," he further explained.
Jimmy Williams, who retired from the US Army in 2007 after two tours in Iraq, suffers from constrictive bronchiolitis.
He said he didn't realize his military service might be the reason for his breathing problems when he returned home after the war in Iraq.
“I was really tired all the time, wore out,” he went on to say. “I was just feeling run down, gasping for air. I could hardly mow my yard.”
The team of Tennessee researchers is now urging the US Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize this disorder in making decisions about disability.
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190049.html
American doctors have diagnosed US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with an untreatable lung disease that is possibly caused by inhaling toxic material in the war zones.
According to a report published in the latest issue of New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Matthew S. King, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues diagnosed 80 American soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with a critical respiratory disorder that interferes with their ability to do physical exercise, Health Day News reported Thursday.
Forty-nine of them agreed to undergo the open lung biopsies. Of that number, 38 were diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis. Constrictive bronchiolitis is a rare non-reversible lung disease in which the small airways in the lungs are compressed and narrowed by scar tissue or inflammation.
The analysis also revealed that twenty-eight of the 38 American soldiers diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis had been exposed to a sulfur-mine fire near the Iraqi city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in 2003.
The American soldiers were evaluated from February 2004 through December 2009.
"Respiratory disorders are emerging as a major consequence of service in southwest Asia. In addition to our study, there have been studies showing increases in asthma, obstructive lung disease, allergic rhinitis and a general increase in reports of respiratory symptoms," Dr. King said.
"This is a very rare condition in otherwise healthy individuals and is generally untreatable. We believe that it is caused by an inhalational exposure with which they have contact while in southwest Asia," he further explained.
Jimmy Williams, who retired from the US Army in 2007 after two tours in Iraq, suffers from constrictive bronchiolitis.
He said he didn't realize his military service might be the reason for his breathing problems when he returned home after the war in Iraq.
“I was really tired all the time, wore out,” he went on to say. “I was just feeling run down, gasping for air. I could hardly mow my yard.”
The team of Tennessee researchers is now urging the US Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize this disorder in making decisions about disability.
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190049.html