Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Forensic Medicine Clinical Toxicology

Introduction: Despite of the fact that silica is encountered in numerous industries, silica exerts various adverse health effects among exposed workers, mainly on the respiratory and renal systems, through oxidative stress. Aim: The aim of this work was to study the changes of some oxidative stress indicators and renal alteration which may result from silica exposure among iron foundry workers. Subjects and methods: This study was conducted on 70 silica-exposed workers compared to 40 non-exposed individuals as a control group. The exposed group was further subdivided, according to chest X-ray (CXR) interpretation, into a silicotic subgroup (n=13) and a non-silicotic subgroup (n=57). The whole studied population was subjected to: full medical and occupational history, clinical examination, laboratory investigations including serum malondialdehyde (MDA), serum glutathione peroxidase (GPx), serum 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-HdG), serum creatinine, serum cystatin C, serum urea, urinary silica, urinary albumin and urinary Ü1-microglobulin. Also, all participants performed ventilatory function tests and the exposed group was subjected to radiological evaluation using plain CXR. Results: Statistically significant (p<0.001) higher values of urinary silica, urinary albumin, urinary Ü1-microglobulin, serum MDA, serum 8-HdG, serum creatinine, serum cystatin C and albumin creatinine ratio were detected among the exposed group compared to the controls. Statistically significant lower values of the estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR), serum GPx, SVC%, FVC %, FEV1 % and FEV1/FVC % were detected in the exposed group compared to the controls (p<0.05). All the studied parameters showed statistically significant correlations with the urinary silica level

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