PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anne Pégorié
AU  - Nicolas Paleiron
AU  - Thomas Erauso
AU  - Cecile Tromeur
AU  - Sophie Herry
AU  - Yvan Bec
AU  - Bertrand Bouard
AU  - Frédéric Grassin
AU  - Michel André
TI  - Chest CT screening of asbestos exposed workers in the Arsenal of Brest: Prevalence of asbestos related abnormalities, and incidental findings
DP  - 2011 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - p4935
VI  - 38
IP  - Suppl 55
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4935.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4935.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38
AB  - Introduction: Chest CT screening is part of the recommendations of the French medical surveillance program of asbestos exposed workers, and seems to have shortened the delay in the diagnosis of asbestos related diseases, yet conversely to have increased the number of complementary examinations due to incidental findings.Aims and objectives: The aims of the study were to identify, lung lesions and incidental findings discovered during chest CT screening of asbestos exposed workers, assess the number of lesions considered to be professional diseases, and assess the benefits of incidental findings.The impact of tobacco smoking and the level of exposure were assessed.Methods: It is a retrospective, analytical study on medical records and chest CT scans of 339 asbestos exposed workers who underwent a first chest CT scan between January 2006 and June 2008, indicated by the health department of Brest military arsenal.Results: 22% had normal chest CT scans. 54% had pulmonary nodules of which two proved to be malignant. 8.8% had pleural plaques. 3% had dense sub pleural lines. Smokers have twice as many lesions as nonsmokers. No significant difference was shown between patients with different levels of asbestos exposure. On the whole, 9.4% of the images could be related to asbestos exposure. Findings were incidental in 87.6% of cases. They were considered clinically significant in 6 cases.Conclusion: The diagnosis of few asbestos related lesions and conversely a large amount of incidental findings raises the question of the benefits of a large scale screening. Indeed, the study highlighted more of a personal, than a medical benefit.