An influence of smoke from wood fire on respiratory diseases course

Abstract

In 1998 wood fire'in the Far East lasted from July to November and seized the territory of 2.1 rAillion of hectares. More than 1 million of residents have undergone td an influence of smoke from burning wood for long time. Though the mortality and morbidity from respiratory diseases did not increase in 1998, the authors revealed a number of quantitative changes in the course of principal respiratory diseases in the period of the smoke influence.
Hospitalization of patients with pneumonia in Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk hospitals increased by 20-30%. This disease run more severe compared with the same period of 1997. Bilateral lung injury and dry cough were observed more often. A peculiar bronchopneumopathy with breathlessness, dry cough, crackles and wheezing on auscultation, bilateral bronchial wall thickening on chest radiography, absence of fever and intoxication, high efficacy of glucocorticosteroids and bronchodilators was noted in children aged 5-13 years.
In 191 adult patients with lung obstructive disease the effect of traditional complex therapy was reliably worse assessed by the FEV₁ dynamics. The increase of atmospheric CO concentration more than 3 mg/m3 was accompanied by an improvement of bronchial passability in asthmatic patients and its worsening in chronic obstructive bronchitis patients (p<0.05). This is thought to involve different obstruction mechanisms in these diseases.