The study was conducted among 300 emery polisher workers, with at least 5 years of exposure to silica. The workers were recruited from large scale industry with good dust control and small scale industry with no dust control. A standard questionnaire was required to be filled including information regarding duration of work, working hours and history of smoking followed by thorough physical examination. Investigations including chest x-rays and spirometry were carried out in each worker. It was observed that 32(10.66%) workers were suffering from silicosis of which 20(62.5%) workers were working in small-scale sector and 12(37.5%) in large scale industry. Workers with duration of more than 10 years comprised 62.5% of silicotics and 37.5% had worked for less than 10 years. The prevalence of silicosis was 22.47% (20 out of 89) in workers engaged for more than 10 years and 5.68% (12 out of 211) who were working for less than 10 years. Shortness of breath was the most frequent symptom (43.34%) followed by dry cough (29.65%) and expectoration (6.68%). Mean FEV1 in silicotics was 2.25 ± 0.59 L/s (p<0.01) and mean FVC was 2.52 ± 06.4L (p<0.05). Radiologically, most of silicotics had grade III and IV disease (31.25%) silicotics were suffering from tuberculosis. We found that prevalence of Silicosis in emery polishers is more in small scale industry as compared to large scale industry and it increased with longer duration of exposure.

Superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS) is now a well-known diagnosis since its first authentic description by William Hunter in 1757. The etiology of the SVCS has changed completely since its first description. Infections including syphilis and tuberculosis, being responsible for 40% of SVCS in a review of cases earlier, but now 90% are secondary to malignant diseases. We present a case of 46-yrs-old male who presented with progressive dyspnea and other features of SVCS. He was finally diagnosed as SVCS due to aneurysm of ascending arch of aorta, secondary to cardiovascular syphilis, the most common etiology two centuries back, rare today.