Asbestos fibre in the lung and mesothelioma. A re-examination of the Malmö material

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos fibre in the lung and mesothelioma. A re-examination of the Malmö material, by F.D. Pooley (Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica. Section A, Pathology, 1973).

The study

• Author: F.D. Pooley
• Journal: Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica. Section A, Pathology
• Published: 1973;81(4):390-400
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001316).

Abstract

An examination of general lung tissue with an electron microscope for asbestos fibres is reported. The 65 cases examined consisted of 33 cases of pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma and 32 control cases. Asbestos fibres were found to be more abundant in the mesothelioma cases than in the controls. The most common fibres detected in the mesothelioma group were amphibole asbestos while chrysotile was the more predominant fibre detected in the controls. The difference in asbestos fibre content obtained between the mesothelioma group and controls is larger than the difference obtained in asbestos body counts made with an optical microscope on tissue from the same cases. In those cases found to be positive for asbestos bodies by light microscopy amphibole asbestos fibres were the predominant fibre type detected.

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

In plain English

This study re-examined lung tissue from an earlier Malmö, Sweden, study by Hägerstrand and colleagues, which had counted asbestos bodies by light microscopy. Using an electron microscope, the author examined lung sections from 65 of the original 68 autopsy cases: 26 pleural mesothelioma, 7 peritoneal mesothelioma, 32 controls. Fibres were classed as chrysotile or amphibole where possible (very fine fibres in 3 cases could not immediately be classified) but were not counted on each grid. Asbestos fibres were found in 22 of 26 pleural and 5 of 7 peritoneal mesothelioma cases and 17 of 32 controls. Fibre numbers in positive controls ranged from 25 to 100, with one exception. Among the 22 fibre-positive pleural cases, numbers ranged from about fifty to over several hundred. Of the 28 cases earlier found to have asbestos bodies, 89 per cent contained asbestos fibre and 61 per cent amphibole. The author considered none of the 65 to have had significant asbestos exposure. The author concluded that very small amounts of asbestos fibre are common in the lungs of the general population of most industrialised societies.

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: Electron microscope re-examination of stored autopsy lung sections from an earlier comparison of mesothelioma cases and autopsy controls
• Who was studied: 65 of the 68 autopsy cases from Hägerstrand et al. (1968), Malmö, Sweden: 26 pleural mesothelioma cases, 7 peritoneal mesothelioma cases, 24 pleural mesothelioma controls and 8 peritoneal mesothelioma controls. Material from the other three cases was not available. Dates of the cases are not given.
• Exposure: Asbestos fibres found in lung tissue, identified where possible as chrysotile or amphibole. Amphibole varieties such as amosite and crocidolite could not readily be told apart. The author stated that none of the 65 cases had significant exposure to asbestos dust.
• Main results:
  • Pleural mesothelioma cases: 22 of 26 contained asbestos fibres.
  • Among the pleural mesothelioma cases, 13 contained amphibole and 15 contained chrysotile (7 amphibole alone, 9 chrysotile alone, 6 both).
  • In the 22 fibre-positive pleural mesothelioma cases, the number of fibres detected ranged from a maximum exceeding several hundred down to about fifty.
  • Peritoneal mesothelioma cases: 5 of 7 were positive for asbestos fibre (71 per cent).
  • Controls (pleural and peritoneal combined): 17 of 32 contained asbestos fibres (53 per cent).
  • In fibre-positive controls, fibre numbers were very low, ranging from 25 to 100. The exception was one peritoneal control (case 164), which contained several hundred fibres.
  • Of the 17 fibre-positive controls, 8 contained amphibole and 11 contained chrysotile (6 amphibole alone, 9 chrysotile alone, 2 both).
  • Of the 28 cases (mesothelioma and controls) that Hägerstrand et al. had found positive for asbestos bodies, 89 per cent contained asbestos fibre, 61 per cent contained amphibole and 43 per cent contained chrysotile.
  • In 3 cases, very fine fibres could not immediately be classified as chrysotile or amphibole from their diffraction patterns. The author suspected they were originally chrysotile that had been altered.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that amphibole types were the most common fibres in cases positive for asbestos bodies by light microscopy. They also concluded that very small quantities of asbestos fibre are common in the lungs of the general population of most industrialised societies.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Amphibole varieties (amosite and crocidolite) could not readily be distinguished from each other by electron diffraction.
  • Fibres were not counted on each grid; only their presence was established.
  • The volume of tissue examined by electron microscope was almost one hundred times smaller than the volume examined for asbestos bodies in the earlier study.
  • The ashing procedure destroyed most of the anatomical detail of the sections.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Mesothelioma, Peritoneal mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Amphibole Asbestos, Chrysotile, Asbestos Bodies.

Related studies

• Scanning electron microscopic examination of human asbestos bodies — M.L. Mace, T.L. McLemore, et al. (1980)
• An examination of the fibrous mineral content of asbestos lung tissue from the Canadian chrysotile mining industry — F.D. Pooley (1976)
• Scanning electron microscopy and transmitted electron backscatter diffraction examination of asbestos standard reference materials, amphibole particles of differing morphology, and particle phase discrimination from talc ores — B.R. Bandli, M.E. Gunter (2014)
• Coated and uncoated lung mineral fibres in subjects with and without pleural plaques at autopsy — A. Andrion, D. Bellis, et al. (1984)
• Additional histopathologic examination of the lungs from a 3-month inhalation toxicity study with multiwall carbon nanotubes in rats — S. Treumann, L. Ma-Hock, et al. (2013)
• A simple method for preparing ferruginous bodies for electron microscopic examination — A. Churg, N. Sakoda, et al. (1977)

Browse more research in Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica. Section A, Pathology, or return to medical research.