The impact of occupational experience on the development of circulatory system pathology in workers in the coal mining industry

Introduction. Primary prevention of circulatory system diseases is extremely important due to the additional impact of harmful industrial factors on the body, which can accelerate the development of cardiovascular pathology in workers of industrial enterprises.

The aim of the study was to investigate the incidence of atherosclerosis and premorbid heart failure in coal mining workers, depending on their occupation and the duration of exposure to harmful industrial factors.

Material and methods. Four hundred ninety seven workers from mines and coal open-pits were examined. The median of the average age of the former was 47.0 (43.0; 51.0), while the latter was 47.0 (43.0; 50.0) years, p=0.329. The study of the great vessels, assessment of diastolic function and global longitudinal myocardial strain of the left ventricle were performed using the Vivid E9 apparatus (General Electric). The N-terminal fragment of the precursor of brain natriuretic peptide was determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results. With increasing work experience, the percentage of atherosclerosis revealing among coal mining workers also raises: 79.2% in the group of subjects with more than 20 years of work experience, p=0.0002; in the group from 15 to 20 years, atherosclerosis was detected in 53.2% of the cases, p=0.229; with less than 15 years of work experience – 37.5%, p= 0.0008. The frequency of revealing the signs of premorbid heart failure, combined with a decrease in global longitudinal myocardial strain, among all the examined individuals turned out to be extremely high and did not significantly differ in the groups formed by work experience; its highest values were found in the group of bulldozer and excavator operators. There were no significant differences in the prevalence of the cardiovascular pathology under study among underground coal mining workers of different professional groups.

Limitations. The study was limited to the number of individuals undergoing preventive medical examinations at the Research Institute for Complex Problems of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases.

Conclusion. Atherosclerotic vascular lesions are characterized by a prolonged period of atherosclerotic plaque formation and are found much more frequently with increasing work experience in harmful environments. Disorders of cardiac contractility and relaxation, on the contrary, develop much faster and have a high prevalence with occupational duration of up to 15 years. An extremely high incidence of premorbid heart failure is identified in all occupational cohorts.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was conducted in compliance with the standards of the Bioethics Committee of the Research Institute for Complex Problems of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases (Protocol of the Meeting No. 4, § 1 dated November 11, 2024), elaborated in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association (ed. 2013). All participants gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contribution:
Filimonov E.S. – the concept and design of the study, collection of material and data processing, collection of literature data, writing the text;
Rumpel O.A. – data processing and interpretation;
Bondarev O.I. – data processing, editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: April 24, 2026 / Revised: May 12, 2026 / Accepted: July 1, 2026 / Published: August 14, 2026

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