# Pulmonary Diseases in WTC Workers: Symptoms, Function, and Chest CT Correlates

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2024 · $599,222

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Our long-term goal has been to characterize the heterogeneous group of chronic lower airway
diseases (LAD) observed in World Trade Center (WTC) workers and volunteers, uncover their risk factors and
comorbidities, identify subgroups with adverse and favorable lung function trajectories and outcomes, and
develop and deploy novel imaging approaches to the investigation of the lung injury underlying them. Such
goal will in turn translate into better understanding of disease pathophysiology, more targeted,
personalized, and perhaps disease modifying treatment approaches, and improved surveillance and
prevention strategies.
 Our previous studies established valid clinical diagnoses and have demonstrated markedly diverging
longitudinal lung function trajectories in the largest and most diverse WTC occupational cohort. Besides our
expertise with longitudinal lung function analyses, we were uniquely able to demonstrate associated
quantitative chest computer tomography (QCT) metrics that have helped validate and characterize the
disease processes that have been associated with WTC occupational exposures. QCT has revolutionized
respiratory research, and has contributed important and novel information on interstitial, proximal and
distal airway, and vascular changes that underlie the process of inflammatory remodeling and disease
progression. Our observations in this cohort have also identified a subgroup who has experienced
unexpected and significant lung function gain in adult life, suggesting a process of resolution in need of
improved understanding. Our studies have been on the forefront of occupational respiratory research.
 We propose three specific aims to deploy novel QCT and spirometric markers to investigate early
interstitial and airway injury and remodeling in subjects who have experienced accelerated lung function
decline or developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease while on longitudinal and clinical surveillance.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10848174
- **Project number:** 5U01OH010401-11
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Rafael E. de la Hoz
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $599,222
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10848174

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10848174, Pulmonary Diseases in WTC Workers: Symptoms, Function, and Chest CT Correlates (5U01OH010401-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10848174. Licensed CC0.

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