[Occupational asthma in a Senegalese car sprayer. Diagnostic and medico-legal problems]. / Asthme professionnel chez un peintre sénégalais. Problèmes diagnostiques et médico-légaux.

The industrial development policy adopted by African countries since their independence has contrasted with the relative rarity of occupational asthma in workers exposed to different situations and substances known to generate occupational asthma. Asthma occurring in a Senegalese car sprayer had persisted for twenty years before the its work-related nature was recognized. This observation demonstrates the need for: 1. Education to make health care personnel, as well as workers and employers, more aware of the clinical aspects of asthma. Educational programs should include diagnostic and preventive measures for respiratory occupational diseases including occupational asthma. 2. A registration system for occupational diseases so the occupational nature of diseases can acquire legal recognition. 3. Cooperative efforts between general practitioners, occupational physicians, physiologists and lung specialists in order to create reference laboratories where tests can be performed to confirm the diagnosis of occupational asthma, a disease which has not yet been included on the list of occupational diseases.

[Spirometric reference values in the Senegalese child and adolescent aged 6 to 23 years]. / Valeurs de références spirométriques sénégalaises chez l'enfant et l'adolescent agés de 6 à 23 ans.

The authors have studied five hundred sixty spirographs of children and adolescents of the two sexes. Two hundred seventy four girls an two hundred eighty six boys--all of them are pupils in two schools of Dakar. The exploitation to the results shows a significant deficit of the spirometric reference values found in our specimen of population with regard to the reference norms, established from an european population of the same age height and sex. The explanation is an anthropometric difference, the west-african black population is macroskeletal, the trunk being proportionately shorter than the limbs. Knowing that the data proved in different african countries are not systematically superimposable, this work find his interest in the applications in medical practice, in general or thoracic surgery, in epidemiologic studies and for the assessment of sequela in forensic medicine.

[Peak expiratory flow in 542 Senegalese children and adolescents ]. / Contribution à l'étude du débit expiratoire maximal chez 542 enfants et adolescents sénégalais.

We have measured the P.E.F. of 542 infants with a portable spirometer and correlated the results with different spirometric and anthropometric parameters with a view to validate this functional respiratory exploration technique as a practical and cheap way of screening and observing such respiratory diseases as asthma, bronchitis and muscoviscidosis. The results perfectly correlate with the parameters and specially with the F.E. V1, both among normal subjects and those suffering from an obstructive or restrictive syndrome. Therefore the results validate this system for the screening and the clinical treatment of those diseases.