Researchers are studying lung diseases observed in previously deployed military personnel

Researchers are studying lung diseases observed in previously deployed military personnel

Military personnel deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq may have been exposed to significant amounts of dust and other respiratory hazards, resulting in persistent respiratory symptoms and illnesses such as asthma and bronchiolitis. Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and National Jewish Health have teamed up to study lung diseases seen in previously deployed military personnel.

Heather Lowers, a research geologist at the USGS, will present results on the properties of dust retained in the lungs of previously deployed military personnel at the GSA Connects 2022 meeting in Denver on Monday.

I never thought in my career that I would study human lung tissue. Through some previous work we had done studying first responders at the World Trade Center, we were connected to a team of pulmonologists and pulmonary pathologists who were trying to better understand how inhaled particulate matter can cause lung damage. Several of my co-authors at National Jewish Health have received a Department of Defense grant to study what causes some of the unexpected lung injuries in people deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Heather Lowers, research geologist, USGS

With funding from the Department of Defense, National Jewish Health established a clinic to evaluate previously deployed military personnel who were experiencing symptoms of lung injury. Lowers' role as geologist on the project was to develop a method for extracting and analyzing particles found in the lungs. Using techniques to create high-resolution images of microscopic particles and characterize their elemental composition, Lowers assessed the composition and size of the inorganic particles found in the lungs.

Of the 250 responders who came to the National Jewish Health clinic, 65 underwent surgical lung biopsy as part of their clinical care and 24 gave permission to have their lung biopsy examined for this research. The lung biopsies from the 24 responders were compared to 11 civilian controls from donated lung samples that matched the responders' age and smoking history.

"We found that the military subjects generally had more retained dust in their lungs per cubic centimeter of tissue we examined than the controls. And the particles also generally appeared to be smaller than the dust we examined." was maintained in the control group,” Lowers said.

They also found that both responders who reported low/no sandstorm exposure or moderate sandstorm exposure had higher levels of dust in their lungs than controls.

"Even when there aren't dust storms, Soldiers generally work in a pretty dusty environment, so we were seeing the culmination of everything that would have been inhaled during their deployment," Lowers said. “Even when you drive a truck across the desert floor, you kick up dust and breathe it in.”

While these analyzes provide helpful insight into the lung injuries observed in previously deployed military personnel, Lowers hopes that more samples can be examined to better assess the properties of retained dust in the lungs.

"One of the challenges I've learned working with human subjects is that it's very difficult to recruit enough people for these studies. So while we generally see differences between the controls and the users, the number of samples is limited," Lowers said.

Due to the increased amount of dust present in the lungs of previously deployed military personnel, meaningful mitigation strategies are needed to reduce responders' dust exposure.

Source:

Geological Society of America

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