High prevalence of occupational exposure to solvents or silica in male systemic sclerosis patients: a Belgian cohort analysis

Abstract

Increasing evidence supports a relation of some occupational exposures to systemic sclerosis pathogenesis. We aimed to evaluate occupational exposure and clinical characteristics in male patients with systemic sclerosis followed in two Belgian academic hospitals. One hundred and three male patients, included in the Belgian Systemic Sclerosis Cohort, were identified. An expert in occupational medicine reviewed the occupational history and allocated the patients to one of the following groups: probable exposure to crystalline silica, probable exposure to solvents, probable exposure to other toxins, or no suspected occupational exposure. Clinical characteristics were extracted from the Belgian Systemic Sclerosis Cohort database. Sufficient data were available for 96/103 patients. Most of these male patients (70/96, 72.9%) had a history of occupational exposure, 55 patients were likely exposed to crystalline silica, 11 patients to solvents, 2 patients to both silica and solvents, and 2 patients to asbestos. Only 26 patients had no suspected occupational exposure (27.1%). We noticed a significant difference in smoking status between exposed and non-exposed patients, with the highest percentage of ever smokers in the group with solvent exposure (p = 0.011). We found no significant differences in disease phenotype between exposed and non-exposed patients. However, we noted a trend to a higher prevalence of anti-Scl70 antibodies, cardiac dysfunction, and higher disease activity score in patients with occupational exposure. We observed a strikingly high prevalence of occupational exposure to both silica and solvents in male systemic sclerosis patients. Occupational exposure to silica or solvents is highly prevalent in male systemic sclerosis patients.

Omega-3 fatty acid intake suppresses induction of diverse autoantibody repertoire by crystalline silica in lupus-prone mice

“…cSiO 2 also induced AAbs with specificities for neutrophil cytoplasmic proteins [61,62], collagen [63], and complement [64,65]. Exposure to respirable cSiO 2 has also been aetiologically linked to several autoimmune diseases besides lupus [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73]. Thus, it was noteworthy that cSiO 2 induced AAbs associated with rheumatoid arthritis (collagen II, fibrinogen IV, fibrinogen S, fibronectin, and vimentin), Sj€ ogren's syndrome (a-fodrin), systemic sclerosis (topoisomerase I), vasculitis (MPO and PR3), myositis (Mi-2, TIF1-c, MDA5), autoimmune hepatitis (LC-1), and coeliac disease (TTG) [74][75][76][77][78].…”

KIR/HLA Gene Profile Implication in Systemic Sclerosis Patients from Mexico

“…Concerning the environmental factors, silica exposure was possibly involved with construction-related occupations. The organic solvent was suspected in patients with occupational exposure to cleaning products and trichloroethylene derivatives or in those working in the paint industry [26].…”

Treatment adherence in systemic sclerosis: A cross‐sectional study

“…All patients included in the Belgian Systemic Sclerosis Cohort (BSSC) and under the care of the department of rheumatology at the University Hospital of Leuven were considered for participation in the study. The BSSC is a Belgian multicentre, prospective cohort including SSc patients who fulfil the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for SSc (De Decker et al, ; Vanthuyne et al, ). Data on disease activity and organ involvement are collected at baseline, at 6 months and yearly thereafter.…”

“…Data on disease activity and organ involvement are collected at baseline, at 6 months and yearly thereafter. Yearly follow‐up includes history, clinical examination and technical investigations, including biochemical analysis, an electrocardiogram (ECG), a chest X‐ray, pulmonary function testing (PFT), a 6‐min walking test and a transthoracic echocardiogram (De Decker et al, ).…”