hospital cleaner.pdf

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of exposure to detergents and other chemicals on biomarkers of pulmonary response in exhaled breath from hospital cleaners: a pilot study Massimo Corradi ? Petra Gergelova ? Elisabetta Di Pilato ? Giuseppina Folesani ? Matteo Goldoni ? Roberta Andreoli ? Luisella Selis ? Antonio Mutti Received: 28 October 2010 / Accepted: 11 July 2011 / Published online: 22 July 2011  Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract Purpose The main aim of the study was to provide evi- dence whether professional cleaning was associated with biomarkers of lung damage in non-invasively collected biological fluids (exhaled air and exhaled breath conden- sate—EBC). Materials and methods This cross-sectional study involved 40 cleaners regularly exposed to cleaning deter- gents and 40 controls. The subjects completed a standard questionnaire from European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS II) and underwent a spirometry. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) was measured online, and pH, ammonium (NH4 ?), H2O2 and 4-hy- droxynonenal (4-HNE) were assayed in EBC. Results Among the cleaners, the frequency of asthma and rhinitis was, respectively, 2.5 and 20%. The most fre- quently reported symptoms were sneezing (27.5%), nasal and/or pharyngeal pruritus (25%), ocular pruritus (22.5%) and cough (22.5%). There were no significant differences in comparison with the control group. Median FENO levels were higher in African than in Caucasian cleaners (21.5 [16.5–30.0] ppb and 18.0 [13.5–20.5] ppb; p \ 0.05). H2O2-EBC (0.26 [0.09–0.53] lM vs. 0.07 [0.04–0.15] lM; p \ 0.01), NH4 ?-EBC (857 [493–1,305] lM vs. 541 [306–907] lM; p \ 0.01) and pH-EBC (8.17 [8.09–8.24] vs. 8.06 [7.81–8.10]; p \ 0.01) were higher in the cleaners than in the controls. Finally, the cleaners showed signifi- cant correlations between pH-EBC and NH4 ?-EBC (r = 0.33, p \ 0.05) and a weak correlation between 4-HNE-EBC and H2O2-EBC (r = 0.37, p \ 0.05). Conclusion The promising role of EBC analysis in bio- monitorin