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Noninvasive Health Assessment Methods in Sick Building Syndrome

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Sick Building Syndrome

Abstract

One of the major goals in studying sick building syndrome is to demonstrate relationships between building related exposures and health outcomes, especially airways inflammation. Due to the nature of these diseases, accurate, practical, and objective diagnostic measurement techniques are needed in field investigations. Pulmonary function tests, such as spirometry, are important objective techniques. However, they reflect the functional changes of the lung in relatively late and probably irreversible stages. Direct monitoring of airways inflammations in response to building related exposures, are receiving increased attention since they may pick up inflammatory changes before the injury becomes irreversible. Invasive approaches such as bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial biopsies have been used to assess airways inflammation. These methods however, are not practical for use in field investigations. Thus, much work has been focused on the development of noninvasive methods for monitoring inflammation in building related health problems. The recent most commonly used noninvasive techniques in field investigations are exhaled nitric oxide, nasal nitric oxide, induced sputum, exhaled breath condensate, and nasal lavage. This chapter will discuss the practical application of these methods in sick building syndrome as well as technical details and validity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, St. George’s University School of Medicine, Grenada, The Caribbean

    Muge Akpinar-Elci & Omur Cinar Elci

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  1. Muge Akpinar-Elci
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  2. Omur Cinar Elci
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Correspondence to Muge Akpinar-Elci .

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  1. P.O. Box 33, Al-Khod, 123, Oman

    Sabah A. Abdul-Wahab

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Akpinar-Elci, M., Elci, O.C. (2011). Noninvasive Health Assessment Methods in Sick Building Syndrome. In: Abdul-Wahab, S. (eds) Sick Building Syndrome. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17919-8_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17919-8_23

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