[Cardiopathy caused by physical or chemical agents]

Occupational cardiovascular diseases do not possess any specific clinical and physiopathogenetic features.

The paper summarizes the results of the most recent studies on chemical and physical cardiovascular risks, and assesses the current degree of risk for occupational cardiovascular disease.

Scientific literature and medline databases on this topic were carefully considered.

The scientific literature often provides interesting information on the cardiotoxicity of chemical and physical agents in workplaces; however, a large amount of data refers to high-dose exposures. On the contrary, nowadays exposure conditions have progressively improved and toxic concentrations in air in most cases are below the environmental threshold limit values. In workplaces multiple exposures to different cardiovascular risks, both occupational and non-occupational, are often present simultaneously and these cardiovascular diseases have not been adequately studied in comparison to other occupational organic and systemic diseases. Moreover, possible interferences between occupational cardiotoxic substances and cardiological therapy are still poorly investigated, even though such situations frequently occur.