Assessment of the manganese induced neurotoxicity among former shipyard welders in a prospective study

In personalized medicine, research that expands approaches to studying the pathophysiological mechanisms of welding exposure to manganese. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the manganese induced neurotoxicity of former welders with chronic manganese intoxication in a prospective study using modern methods of psychophysiological testing. The study involved 27 patients and 54 people from the control group. The average length of work experience as a welder was 23.1 years. 63.0 % of welders and 72.0 % of the control group participated in the re-examination after 6 years. 37% of patients did not take part in the re-examination because 7.4 % of deaths, 14.8 % of cases of change of residence and 14.8 % of cases of refusal for health reasons. The scope of the examination included anamnesis collection, examination by a neurologist and a set of psychophysiological tests. Analysis of the patients' results showed that their hypokinetic syndrome increases over time. The performance of the special test worsened by 31.9 % from the initial values (p=0.004). The intensity of hand tremor in patients increased by 2 times during the observation period and amounted to 0.15 and 0.30 m/sec2 for the dominant hand in the 1st and 2nd examinations, respectively (p function show_eabstract() { $('#eabstract1').hide(); $('#eabstract2').show(); $('#eabstract_expand').hide(); }