Siderosis - Symptoms, Causes and Treatment of Siderosis
Noun - fibrosis of the lung caused by iron dust; occurs among welders and other metal workers. Problems usually develop once more than 30 g of iron accumulate. Each unit of red cells has 200 mg of iron; normal body stores are 3-4.0 g; daily losses are 1 mg.

African siderosis is a condition of iron overload thought to be associated with a diet high in iron. Some of the iron might be obtained from consumption of a traditional beer drunk by several groups of sub-Saharan Africans. The beer which is low in alcohol is brewed in iron drums. Daily consumption of the beer may lead to ingestion of as much as 45 to 85 milligrams of iron.

Superficial siderosis (SS) of the central nervous system is an uncommon disease
characterized by accumulation of hemosiderin in the meninges, brain surface, spinal cord and cranial nerves. The deposition of hemosiderin, which may be cytotoxic to underlying tissue, results from chronic bleeding into the subarachnoid space. In many cases, the precise source of bleeding is not identified.

Symptoms of Siderosis
cardiac failure
growth failure in children
endocrine dysfunction - for example, diabetes mellitus
liver cirrhosis

Cause of Siderosis
Recurrent bleeding on the surface of the brain may cause "superficial siderosis", which is typlified by bilateral sensor neural deafness and cerebella ataxia with dysarthria and nystagmus (Fishman, 1993). Superficial siderosis can rarely occur as a complication of brachial plexus avulsion (Fernley et al, 1995).

Superficial siderosis can also cause bilateral vestibular loss (Watanabe, 1997), which can cause ataxia resembling that of a cerebellar disorder. Superficial siderosis is diagnosed through MRI.

Treatment
This disease is only found in patients that have high or low levels of iron in their body. Most patients that do have this disease will only complain about high levels of iron in their body. Siderosis is also known as the inflammation of the lungs and this is also caused by a lot of inhaling of dust which contains iron salts and also other iron particles. This disease is usually a result of working with iron particles and excessively inhaling all the iron particles can then result in your body experiencing the symptoms of siderosis. Obviously if you are working in an occupation that can give you high levels of iron particles then you should have been warned about all the possible problems that can occur with the working environment that you are in. Usually though the only people that should worry about this disease are workers that are welders and also other metal workers as these are the occupations that are most at risk from contracting siderosis. But proper protecting from these particles will reduce the risk to zero.
 

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