Welding fume exposure has been associated with structural brain changes and a wide variety of clinical and sub-clinical outcomes including cognitive, behavioral and motor abnormalities. Respirator use has been shown to decrease exposure to welding fumes; however, the associations between respirator use and health outcomes, particularly neurologic health, have been understudied. In this preliminary study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate the effectiveness of respirator use in protecting workers' white matter (WM) from the harmful effects related to welding fume exposure. Fractional anisotropy (FA), a common DTI measurement of water diffusion properties, was used as a marker of WM microstructure integrity. We hypothesized that FA in brain regions involved in motor and neurocognitive functions would differ between welders reporting respirator use compared to those not using a respirator. We enrolled a pilot cohort of 19 welders from labor unions in the New York City area. All welders completed questionnaires to assess welding history and occupational health. All completed a DTI acquisition on a 3 T Siemens scanner. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), a bioinformatic analytical strategy, was used to model the divergence of WM microstructures in 48 regions defined by the ICBM-DTI-81 atlas between respirator users compared to non-users. This yielded an effective discrimination of respirator users from non-users, with the uncinate fasciculus, the cerebellar peduncle and the superior longitudinal fasciculus contributing most to the discrimination of these groups. These white matter tracts are involved in widespread motor and cognitive functions. To our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest a protective effect of respirator on WM microstructure, indicating that the lack of respirator may present unsafe working conditions for welders. These preliminary findings may inform a larger, longitudinal intervention study that would be more appropriate to investigate the potential protective effect of respirator usage on brain white matter in welders.

中文翻译：

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呼吸器的使用可保护大脑白质免受焊接烟雾的影响：焊工的试点磁共振成像研究。

焊接烟雾暴露与大脑结构变化以及各种临床和亚临床结果有关，包括认知、行为和运动异常。呼吸器的使用已被证明可以减少接触焊接烟雾；然而，呼吸器使用与健康结果之间的关联，尤其是神经系统健康，尚未得到充分研究。在这项初步研究中，我们使用扩散张量成像 (DTI) 来研究使用呼吸器在保护工人的白质 (WM) 免受与焊接烟雾暴露相关的有害影响方面的有效性。分数各向异性 (FA) 是水扩散特性的常见 DTI 测量值，被用作 WM 微结构完整性的标志。我们假设在报告使用呼吸器的焊工与不使用呼吸器的焊工之间，涉及运动和神经认知功能的大脑区域的 FA 会有所不同。我们招募了来自纽约市地区工会的 19 名焊工的试点队列。所有焊工都完成了问卷调查，以评估焊接历史和职业健康。所有人都在 3 T Siemens 扫描仪上完成了 DTI 采集。偏最小二乘判别分析 (PLS-DA) 是一种生物信息学分析策略，用于模拟由 ICBM-DTI-81 地图集定义的 48 个区域中呼吸器使用者与非使用者之间 WM 微结构的差异。这产生了对呼吸器使用者和非使用者的有效区分，具有钩状束，小脑脚和上纵束对区分这些群体的贡献最大。这些白质束涉及广泛的运动和认知功能。据我们所知，这项研究首次提出了呼吸器对 WM 微观结构的保护作用，表明缺乏呼吸器可能会给焊工带来不安全的工作条件。这些初步研究结果可能会为更大规模的纵向干预研究提供信息，该研究更适合调查使用呼吸器对焊工脑白质的潜在保护作用。表明缺少呼吸器可能会给焊工带来不安全的工作条件。这些初步研究结果可能会为更大规模的纵向干预研究提供信息，该研究更适合调查使用呼吸器对焊工脑白质的潜在保护作用。表明缺少呼吸器可能会给焊工带来不安全的工作条件。这些初步研究结果可能会为更大规模的纵向干预研究提供信息，该研究更适合调查使用呼吸器对焊工脑白质的潜在保护作用。