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Review
. 2016 Sep;59(9):788-94.
doi: 10.1002/ajim.22643.

Biomarkers of patient intrinsic risk for upper and lower airway injury after exposure to the World Trade Center atrocity

Rachel Zeig-Owens  1   2 , Anna Nolan  1   3 , Barbara Putman  4 , Ankura Singh  1   2 , David J Prezant  1   5 , Michael D Weiden  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Biomarkers of patient intrinsic risk for upper and lower airway injury after exposure to the World Trade Center atrocity

Rachel Zeig-Owens et al. Am J Ind Med. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

Background: High rates of upper and lower airways disease have occurred in Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) workers exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster site. Most experienced acute declines in pulmonary function, and some continued to experience decline over 14 years of follow-up. Similarly, some with rhinosinusitis had symptoms requiring sinus surgery.

Aim: To increase generalizability of biomarker investigation, we describe biomarkers of risk for upper and lower airway injury that do not require stored serum.

Methods: We review WTC biomarker literature.

Results: Cytokines expressed in stored serum from the first 6 months post-9/11 can identify individuals at higher risk for future abnormal pulmonary function.

Conclusion: This research will help identify individuals at high risk of lung and sinus disease that develop after these, or future, irritant exposures for intensive monitoring and treatment. It may also identify targets for effective therapeutic interventions. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:788-794, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: World Trade Center; airways disease; lung injury; predictive biomarkers.

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Conflict of interest statement

DISCLOSURE (AUTHORS)

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Blood eosinophil concentration in firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site during the First 2 Weeks after 9/11 is associated with sinus surgery. The graph is from Kwon et al. [2016] and represents the median eosinophil concentrations from March 10, 2000 to March 10, 2015, in 18-month intervals. The blue dots show data for Fire Department of New York City Firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site during the first 2 weeks after the attack of September 11, 2001 (9/11) and who had eosinophil measurement between September 11, 2001 and March 10, 2003. The red triangles show data from the group who had surgical treatment for CRS by the end of the study. The number of measurements contributing to the values in each interval are shown below each data point. The top row of values show in red represents the number of eosinophil measurements in the surgical-CRS group. The bottom row of values show in blue represents the number of eosinophil measurements in the study cohort.
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