Diagnostic Tests

First, your doctor will ask you questions about your work history to determine possible sources of silica dust exposure. He'll ask for a detailed description of all your symptoms and will help you understand whether or not you have silicosis or any other health problems.

Next, your doctor will send you for diagnostic tests that will help confirm that you have silicosis rather than other diseases with similar symptoms. These tests include:

• X-rays
  An X-ray of the chest includes your lungs, heart, large arteries, ribs, and diaphragm. Your doctor may order a chest X-ray if your symptoms include a persistent cough, coughing up blood, chest pain, a chest injury, or difficulty in breathing. The test is also used to detect tuberculosis, lung cancer and other chest and lung diseases.

  A serial chest X-ray (repeated or sequential) may be used to evaluate changes over time if your doctor finds an abnormality on your chest X-ray (for example, an increase in the size of an abnormality over a period of weeks).

• Pulmonary function tests
  Pulmonary function is measured with a broad range of tests, usually done in a health care provider's office or a specialized facility. These tests measure how well your lungs are taking in and exhaling air and how efficiently they are transferring oxygen into the blood. They are also used to diagnose certain types of lung disease (especially asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema), to determine the cause of shortness of breath, or to measure how much occupational exposure to contaminants such as silica dust are affecting lung function. They may be repeated to see if medication is helping and to measure progress in disease treatment.

  Spirometry is a test that measures how well the lungs exhale. Your doctor uses the information in this test to diagnose certain types of lung disorders, and especially for identifying obstructive lung diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

  Doctors use lung volume measurement to detect restrictive lung diseases (such as silicosis) in which there is a decreased ability to inhale a normal volume of air. Restrictive lung diseases may be caused by inflammation or scarring of the lung tissue or by abnormalities of the muscles or skeleton of the chest wall.

  Testing the diffusion capacity (also called the DLCO) permits an estimate of how efficiently the lungs are able to transfer oxygen from the air into the bloodstream.