A study of left ventricular function of workers exposed to fluorine

The left ventricular function of 26 workers exposed to fluorine was investigated. The results demonstrated that the LVET in the higher urine fluorine group (greater than 1.5 mg/L) was significantly shorter than the control group (P less than 0.01), the PEP was much longer than the control group (P less than 0.05), and the rate of PEP/LVET compared with the control group was increased. The difference was statistically significant (P less than 0.01). In the lower urine fluorine group (less than 1.5 mg/L) the time of LVET and PEP and the rate of PEP/LVET was not significantly different from the control group. The results showed that excessive fluorine ion in the body could cause decrease of myocardial contraction. The reason may be, that the fluorine ion inhibits the activities of certain enzymes in the body, thereby producing inhibition of ATP supply and utilization.