Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Medicine and NTU Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Sci Total Environ. 2014 May 15;481:370-6. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.01.078. Epub 2014 Mar 7.
In our previous longitudinal study, we found that exposure to current levels of ambient total fungal spores was related to a reduction of childhood lung function. However, the biological properties of various taxa of fungal spores varied greatly, as well as their health effects. In this study, we aimed to determine whether any specific fungal spores were responsible for observed changes in lung function.
Measurement of lung function was conducted for 100 elementary and middle-school students on 5-10 occasions from October 2007 to November 2009 in New Taipei City, Taiwan. During the week of each lung function measurement, continuous daily concentrations of fungal spores were measured from Sunday to Saturday. The counts of fungal spores belonging to specific taxa were identified. A mixed-effect model with repeated measurements was used to analyze the association of lung function and exposure to each specific taxon of fungal spores. Forward stepwise regression was applied to determine which specific fungal spores were the most closely related to lung function changes. The non-linear relationship was examined using a generalized additive model. The piecewise linear regression was then applied to determine the threshold value.
A total of 824 measurements were obtained from 100 participants. Among all the species of fungal spores, only Cladosporium spores were found to be negatively associated with forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) one day later. This association was stronger than the one between the total spore counts and lung function. The threshold of exposure where lung function effect became observable was approximately 1,500 spores/m(3).
This study showed that ambient Cladosporium was most strongly associated with the observed lung function changes among schoolchildren. Replication of these preliminary findings in other geographic areas with different populations would be warranted.
在我们之前的纵向研究中，我们发现暴露于当前水平的环境总真菌孢子与儿童肺功能下降有关。然而，各种真菌孢子的生物特性差异很大，其健康影响也不同。在这项研究中，我们旨在确定是否有特定的真菌孢子导致了观察到的肺功能变化。
在台湾新北市，我们于 2007 年 10 月至 2009 年 11 月期间对 100 名中小学生进行了 5-10 次肺功能测量。在每次肺功能测量的一周内，从周日到周六连续测量真菌孢子的日浓度。鉴定属于特定类别的真菌孢子的数量。使用具有重复测量的混合效应模型分析肺功能与暴露于特定真菌孢子类别的关系。应用逐步向前回归确定与肺功能变化最密切相关的特定真菌孢子。使用广义加性模型检查非线性关系。然后应用分段线性回归确定阈值。
从 100 名参与者中获得了 824 次测量值。在所有真菌孢子物种中，仅发现枝孢属孢子与用力肺活量（FVC）和 1 秒用力呼气量（FEV1）呈负相关，这一关联比总孢子计数与肺功能之间的关联更强。肺功能效应可观察到的暴露阈值约为 1500 个孢子/m3。
这项研究表明，环境中的枝孢属与儿童肺功能变化最密切相关。在其他具有不同人群的地理区域复制这些初步发现将是必要的。
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