A study on non-vibration-exposed organs correlated indices as diagnostic biomarkers of hand-arm vibration syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: Explore the feasibility of using non-vibration-exposed organ-related indices as vibration-induced white finger (VWF) diagnostic biomarkers.

METHODS: Individuals were selected from a factory in China using the judgment sampling method. They were divided into control (con), non-VWF, and VWF groups according to the presence/absence of exposure to hand-transmitted vibration and VWF. Blood samples were collected for ELISA tests.

RESULTS: Analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves was done on six indicators to assess their diagnostic sensitivity for VWF. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) for insulin was 0.909 and was 0.923 for aspartate aminotransferase.

CONCLUSIONS: Insulin and aspartate aminotransferase could be used as indices for the diagnosis of hand-arm vibration syndrome.