Asbestos bodies and pleural plaques in human lungs at necropsy

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos bodies and pleural plaques in human lungs at necropsy, by I. Hägerstrand, B. Seifert (Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica. Section A, Pathology, 1973).

The study

• Authors: I. Hägerstrand, B. Seifert
• Journal: Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica. Section A, Pathology
• Published: 1973;81(4):457-60
• Cited by: 14 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Ninety-seven, largely consecutive, subjects (59 men and 38 women) in Malmo, a coast town of 250.000 inhabitants in south Sweden, were examined post mortem for pleural plaques and asbestos bodies of the lungs. Two sections and one smear from each lung were examined. Asbestos bodies were found in 47 (32 men and 15 women) and pleural plaques in 29 (26 men and 3 women). Sixteen out of the 32 men with asbestos bodies had also pleural plaques. In 7 subjects, all men, more than 20 asbestos bodies were found; four of these had pleural plaques.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

In this autopsy study in Malmo, Sweden, the authors examined 97 largely consecutive adults (59 men, 38 women) autopsied in the autumn of 1967. They looked for asbestos bodies in the lungs and for pleural plaques, examining one smear and two tissue sections from the lower lobe of each lung. Asbestos bodies were found in 47 of the 97 subjects (32 men and 15 women), more often in sections (43 cases) than in smears (22 cases). Pleural plaques were found in 29 subjects (26 men and 3 women). Half of the men with asbestos bodies had plaques, against 37 per cent of men without bodies. Seven subjects, all men, had more than 20 asbestos bodies, and four of these had plaques. No subject had worked in a job in which asbestos is a known hazard, though occupational information was insufficient, especially for women. The authors concluded that if plaques are counted as asbestos-related even without bodies, 70 per cent of men and 45 per cent of women in Malmo would show signs of living in asbestos-polluted air.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Autopsy (necropsy) prevalence study of asbestos bodies in the lungs and pleural plaques
• Who was studied: 97 largely consecutive adult autopsy subjects (59 men, 38 women; children excluded) in Malmo, Sweden, autumn 1967. Mean age was 72 for men (range 38-92) and 71.2 for women (range 30-93).
• Exposure: General urban population with no selected occupational exposure. Fiber types were not identified. One smear and one tissue block (two sections) from the lower lobe of each lung were examined unstained for asbestos bodies.
• Main results:
  • Asbestos bodies were found in 47 of 97 subjects (48.4 per cent): 32 men (54.2 per cent) and 15 women (39.4 per cent).
  • Asbestos bodies were found in sections in 43 cases (31 men, 12 women) and in smears in 22 cases (15 men, 7 women). They were found only in smears in 4 cases and only in sections in 25.
  • Pleural plaques were found in 29 subjects (30 per cent): 26 men (44 per cent) and 3 women (7.5 per cent).
  • Of the 47 subjects with asbestos bodies, 17 (36.2 per cent) had pleural plaques. Sixteen of these were men, i.e. 50 per cent of men with asbestos bodies.
  • Among men without asbestos bodies, 37 per cent had pleural plaques.
  • Seven subjects had more than 20 asbestos bodies (sections and smears together). All were men, and 4 of the 7 had pleural plaques.
  • The 7 men with more than 20 asbestos bodies had occupations where asbestos air pollution might occur (painter, cooper, cement worker, fitter, stockroom man, welder, chief engineer). No subject had an occupation in which asbestos is a known hazard.
  • The one subject with malignant mesothelioma had neither asbestos bodies nor plaques.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, if plaques are taken as possibly caused by asbestos whether or not asbestos bodies are present, 70 per cent of the male and 45 per cent of the female population of Malmo would have morphological signs of living in asbestos-polluted air.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Information about occupations was insufficient, especially for women.
  • Smears and sections gave quite different results, and frequencies across studies are not strictly comparable because of differing techniques.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Pleural plaques and thickening.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Bodies, Pleural Plaques, Autopsy.

Related studies

• Prevalence of "asbestos" bodies in human lungs at necropsy — T.E. Dicke, B. Naylor (1969)
• Relationship between number of asbestos bodies in autopsy lung and pleural plaques on chest X-ray film — T. Kishimoto, T. Ono, et al. (1989)
• Pleural plaques and exposure to mineral fibres in a male urban necropsy population — A. Karjalainen, P.J. Karhunen, et al. (1994)
• 'Black Spots' and hyaline pleural plaques on the parietal pleura of 150 urban necropsy cases — K. Mitchev, P. Dumortier, et al. (2002)
• Pleural plaques as risk indicators for malignant pleural mesothelioma: a necropsy-based study — C. Bianchi, A. Brollo, et al. (1997)
• Relationship between pleural plaques and biomarkers of cumulative asbestos dose. A necropsy study — P.G. Barbieri, D. Consonni, et al. (2019)

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