Spectrum of movement disorders in professional welders

To examine the clinical presentation of movement disorder in patients who reported a history of welding.

A retrospective chart review during a three-year period was performed on all movement disorders and patients who had been welders were identified. The clinical presentation of these patients was categorized by the movement disorder at the time of the initial neurological evaluation and by the therapy response. A comparison group was created by randomly selecting four non-welders for each welder.

Among 1126 charts reviewed, eleven patients presented with a welder history. Parkinsonism was a common presentation in both groups: three of the eleven welders (27%) and five of the forty-one controls (12%). Dystonia was also common with 27% and 20%, respectively. Using the chi-squared analysis, the prevalence rates for both parkinsonism and dystonia were similar to controls. All of the welder patients with parkinsonism responded to dopaminomimetic therapy. Six of the eleven welders had elevated manganese levels in either blood or urine.

Welders who present with a movement disorder such as parkinsonism or dystonia, have the prevalence rates for these disorders similar to the non-welder population (Fig. 2, Ref. 15).