shortness of breath

[bonniekay]

I had an exposure to battery acid from the work place, it was an 8 hour strong exposure thats how long it took them to find the location. Since I have suffered shotness of breath and back and chest pain. I flunked pulmonary function test and an echo showed mild pulmonary hypertension. My question is can I heal, I only seem to be getting worse and I can hardly breath on any exertion?

[National Jewish]

This incident should be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  It is very likely that your lungs have been seriously damaged by inhaling battery acid fumes for 8 hours.  You should see a lung specialist for a thorough evaluation to determine your problem.  The most likely problems to occur due to this inhalation are reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) or bronchiolitis obliterans.  Early treatment of each of these is important to prevent scarring with permanent, irreversible damage to the lungs.

RADS refers to the sudden development of asthma following an insult to the lung.  This insult could be an acute intense chemical exposure, such as your 8 hour inhalation of battery acid fumes.  Acid fumes cause irritation or inflammation of the airways of the lungs.  Some people describe this as a burning feeling in their lungs.  This may be temporary or permanent depending on the concentration and duration.

As long as you are not exposed any more, this inflammation may go away by itself.  Then you would no longer be troubled by shortness of breath and hardly being able to breathe on any exertion.  Sometimes it takes medicine to clear away the inflammation.  Check with your doctor to see if you would benefit from a medicine that is used to control asthma such as an inhaled steroid.

Bronchiolitis obliterans is one type of interstitial lung disease (ILD).  This causes inflammation or swelling that leads to permanent scarring of the small airways of the lungs that carry oxygen to the blood.  Cigarette smoking does not cause this lung disease.  It may be due to toxic fume exposure, lung infection, connective tissue or autoimmune disease such as arthritis.  Most of the time it is not possible to determine exactly what has damaged the lungs.  The most common symptoms are an ongoing dry cough and shortness of breath, especially with exercise.  This may be why you are having shortness of breath and can hardly breathe on any exertion.

Oral steroids like prednisone are frequently the first medicine used.  They need to be started early, before the swelling has become scar tissue.  This is especially true when the cause is toxic fume exposure.  For some people, steroids will help decrease the swelling so it doesn't become scar tissue.  This will cause a dramatic improvement in symptoms.  However, some people have only slight improvement with steroids.  It can take at least 3 months of steroids to begin to see improvement.  Steroid should be decreased slowly to minimize relapse.  In some people low-dose or alternate-day steroids may need to be continued for months or years.

[bonniekay]

to continue this was due to battery acid exposure!