[Acute cardiovascular disease and job retention]. / Risque cardiovasculaire et maintien en emploi.

Since it allows a better quality of life, return to work must be considered ever since the early stages of the health care pathway following a cardiovascular disease. Seeing the occupational physician beforehand, so as to anticipate the return to work, is crucial. Dialogue between cardiologists, general practitioners and occupational physician, still observing medical confidentiality, must allow a better quality of return to work. Being recognized as a handicapped worker is a key element in the prevention of socio-professional exclusion. Even when dealing with long sick leave, permanent functional injuries or job loss, guiding the patients towards the appropriate person can improve return to work and job retention in the long term.

Effects of chronic low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation on physician microvascular structure revealed by nail fold capillaroscopy.

The aim of this study was to assess the long-term asymptomatic effects of low-dose radiation on microvascular structure among interventional physicians, whose hands are exposed to ionizing radiation during daily practice. The study, approved by the national ethics committee, included 186 radiation-exposed (surgeons, cardiologists, radiologists) and 35 unexposed physicians, all of whom had provided written consent. The subjects completed a questionnaire describing their current and past daily practice, from which tentative estimates of current and cumulative radiation exposure estimates were computed. Subject dermal microcirculation state was assessed by capillaroscopy of the nail fold of eight fingers (thumbs excluded) based on photographs. Two quantitative scores characterizing extravasation and morphological abnormalities based on seven semiquantitative indices were obtained from post hoc coding of the photographs by five capillaroscopists. These evaluations were randomized and blind to the exposure. The effect of the radiation exposure on both abnormality scores was modelled using multilevel proportional odds regression adjusted for potential confounders. The proportion of physicians for which the most frequent act is close to the radiation source was highest among surgeons, but with fewer weekly acts. The median duration of exposure was highest among radiologists and cardiologists. No exposure effect could be detected on the extravasation score. The morphological anomaly score increased significantly with duration of exposure and estimated cumulative exposure among surgeons and interventional radiologists, unlike cardiologists among whom no effect could be detected. It is concluded that the shown effects of chronic low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation on physician microvascular structure reveal the importance of increased exposure monitoring and prevention.