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The relationship between aluminum and spontaneous pneumothorax; treatment, prognosis, follow-up?

^a Department of Thoracic Surgery, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
^b Department of Biostatistic, Faculty of Medicine of Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

^* Corresponding author. Mamak Caddesi 43/11 Demirlibahçe, Talatpasa bulvari 06360 Ankara, Turkey. Tel.: +90-532-427-5959; fax: +90-312-360-1430
serdarhan1{at}yahoo.com

Aluminum is known as a toxic metal today. Aluminum has already been determined to cause asthma bronchial and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It was also reported that Shaver disease undergoing fibrosis with large bubbles and the symptoms of potroom asthma had developed in the workers working in the manufacture of aluminum. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between aluminum and spontaneous pneumothorax in the patients not working in the industry and also to evaluate its results. Two groups were studied: the patient group and control group. The first group consisted of 30 cases who were admitted to hospital and treated in the clinic. The other group (control group) was composed of 30 healthy individuals who had no complaints. The aluminum level in blood plasma in spontaneous pneumothorax was found significantly higher than that in the control group (). In the spontaneous pneumothorax cases, the specificity of the aluminum was determined to be 100% and its sensitivity was determined to be 90%. The aluminum risk level in spontaneous pneumothorax group was determined to be ten times as high as that in the control group. We believe that this study will be helpful for thoracic surgeons in the treatment and follow up of spontaneous pneumothorax.

Key Words: Pneumothorax; Aluminum; Lung pathology

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