Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Building a preventive medicine model based on
a thermal approach for certain environmentsensitive
diseases
Gestro M (1) , Condemi V (2) , Solimene U (2) , Meco R (3)
(1) Terme di Lurisia, Italy
(2) State University of Milan, Italy
(3) Catholic University of Milan, Italy
umberto.solimene@unimi.it
Introduction and Objectives
The study is aimed at evaluating and confirming exposure to environmental pollutants
and weather or climate changes as important risk factors for the breakthrough
of certain chronic respiratory, otoiatric, and urological diseases.
The study is aimed at identifying the risk factors for diseases and the protective
factors, while suggesting a preventive medicine model based on a thermal approach.
Materials and Methods
The work was focused on the ER (Emergency Room) Data Bases of Cuneo, and
extended for comparison to the health data contained in the data bases of Milan,
Valtellina, and Bergamo, built according to the ICD-9 codification. Case selection
was performed according to the diagnosis or set of diagnoses included in the nosological
entity under study (Diagnosis1 and Diagnosis2) and based on specific inclusion
and exclusion criteria. The selected field of investigation included chronic
diseases (chronic bronchitis, chronic otitis, urolithiasis) on which medical hydrology
can act as a medium-long term prevention strategy by hampering the onset of
breakthroughs and, thus, disease progression. As to chronic otitis and urolithiasis,
acute symptoms (reno-urethral colics, acute otitis) were taken as an indirect reflection
and a sign of the development and onset of breakthrough as related to weather
and climate changes.Weather data was taken from the online Meteorological Data
Base of ARPA Piedmont. Data was also requested on the following pollutants:
PM10, NO2 and O3 in the years 2006-2009 with hourly values for O3 and NO2 and
average daily values for PM10.
Results
The analysis of Emergency Room data allowed to infer indirectly (secondary diagnoses)
historical data of a past chronic disease underlying the breakthrough and
often only in case of clinically significant diseases, except COPD, recorded in the
ICD-9 classification with a specific diagnosis (49121), which provides for breakthrough
within an ascertained chronic picture, whereas data for breakthrough
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 94-95
94
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4