Radiologists have come with a new form of treatment to help World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers who have been suffering from a mysterious condition.

According to early research results presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), 25 of 29 rescue and recovery workers are suffering from air trapping, a manifestation of obstructed lung airways often seen in smokers and the elderly.

From News-Medical.Net:

Many of the impairments are clearly obstructive, but there also appears to be a patient subgroup with definite symptoms in whom conventional tests fail to show the nature and extent of the obstruction. The term “WTC cough” was coined to describe ailments that could not be clearly characterized in this group, but the addition of end-expiratory CT revealed abnormalities beyond the mild changes that can be seen in smokers and the elderly.

Although thought to be benign, air trapping is symptomatic – causing shortness of breath, dry cough or wheezing – and is treated as a variant of asthma, with inhaled steroids and bronchodilators.

“We remain attentive to the possibility of other adverse health effects that still may occur,” said co-author Rafael de la Hoz, M.D. “We have seen evidence of improvement in some patients, but certainly not in all. We are hoping to secure enough funding to systematically continue the characterization and treatment of these effects.”

The paper presented by David S. Mendelson, M.D., associate professor of radiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City was co-authored by Dr. de la Hoz, Mark Roggeveen, M.D., Stephen Levin, M.D., and Robin Herbert, M.D.