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Comorbidities and Causes of Death of Patients With Asbestosis
Eerika Keskitalo1, Johanna Salonen, Hanna Nurmi
1From the ResearchUnit of InternalMedicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (E.K., J.S., R.K.); Center of Internal and Respiratory Medicine, Medical Research Center (MRC) Oulu, Oulu, Finland (E.K., J.S., R.K.); Division of Respiratory Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (H.N.); Center of Medicine and Clinical Research, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland (H.N.); Northern Finland Birth Cohorts, Arctic Biobank, Infrastructure for Population studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (H.V.).
Objective:
Comorbidities are common and affect the prognosis of patients with interstitial lung diseases, but few previous studies have investigated patients with asbestosis.
Methods:
We collected comorbidities and death causes of 116 patients with asbestosis treated in Oulu University Hospital. Causes of death were confirmed by autopsy in 68% of the cases.
Results:
The most common comorbidities of asbestosis patients were pleural plaques (96%) and coronary artery disease (CAD; 67%). The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis was 8.6%. The most common underlying causes of death were asbestosis (36%), CAD (24%), and lung cancer (LC) (10%). CAD and LC were associated with shorter survival in adjusted analyses.
Conclusions:
Patients with asbestosis have multiple comorbidities. Prevention and treatment of CAD and LC may influence the prognosis of asbestosis patients.
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