Asbestos related disease

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos related disease, by H.L. Hardy (The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1965).

The study

• Author: H.L. Hardy
• Journal: The American Journal of the Medical Sciences
• Published: 1965;250(4):381-9
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 2 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. 002531).

In plain English

This 1965 article, read at a medical meeting, described four Boston patients with asbestos-related disease and reviewed hospital records, alongside discussion of other researchers' work. Two cases showed lung fibrosis. One was a 60-year-old man with 17 years of intermittent exposure covering pipes in ships' holds. The other was a 51-year-old woman with 3 years of dusty asbestos textile work, whose disability kept getting worse after her exposure ended. A 49-year-old smoker who cut and sawed asbestos board for 30 years died of lung adenocarcinoma, with asbestosis in both lungs at necropsy. A 56-year-old man who spent 10 years in shipyards ripping out old insulation died of a primary mesothelioma of the right pleura. Of 23 Massachusetts General Hospital mesothelioma cases from the past 15 years, 11 had reasonably complete work histories; four of these had well-described asbestos exposure at work and 2 had work that could have included significant exposure. The author concluded that United States experience appeared similar to that abroad, and that asbestos exposure, often delayed in effect, would in the future cause much pulmonary disease, especially chest tumors.

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: Case series of four patients (a lecture read at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Physicians), with a brief review of hospital mesothelioma records and discussion of other researchers' published work
• Who was studied: Four patients seen in Boston: a 60-year-old man, a 51-year-old woman, a 49-year-old man and a 56-year-old man. Also the records of 23 cases diagnosed with mesothelioma at Massachusetts General Hospital over the past 15 years.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure; fiber types are not specified for the cases. The jobs were covering pipes in ships' holds; grinding raw material and bagging in asbestos textile manufacture; cutting and sawing asbestos board for insulation of pipes, boilers and refrigerators in building construction; and ripping out and installing insulation on ships' boilers in shipyards.
• Main results:
  • M. C., a 60-year-old male pipe coverer with 17 years of intermittent exposure, had chronic cough, mild breathlessness on effort, and chest X-ray densities mainly in the lower lobes. His physical examination and lung function tests were normal. His symptoms and X-ray changes were considered due to asbestos because of his work history.
  • M. I., a 51-year-old woman, had 3 years of exposure in asbestos textile manufacture. Measurements near her breathing zone showed she inhaled respirable particles above the safe limit.
  • When M. I. was seen 5 years after exposure ended, she had rales at both lung bases, diffuse bilateral X-ray densities and a moderately severe diffusion defect. Her disability was progressive, and right heart strain developed despite no further exposure.
  • R. R., a 49-year-old man who had cut and sawed asbestos board for 30 years and had smoked a pack of cigarettes daily, died about one year after seeking care. At necropsy he had an adenocarcinoma arising from the left lower lobe bronchus, and both lungs showed asbestosis with numerous asbestos bodies. The author suggested that asbestos may have acted as a cocarcinogen with smoking.
  • R. P., a 56-year-old man who had worked 10 years in shipyards ripping out old insulation and installing new insulation in ships' boilers, and who smoked 1½ packs daily, died 2 months after admission. At necropsy he had a primary mesothelioma of the right pleura with widespread metastases.
  • Of 23 Massachusetts General Hospital cases diagnosed with mesothelioma in the past 15 years, 11 had reasonably complete work histories. Of these 11, four had well-described job exposure to asbestos, and in 2 the work could have included significant exposure. The OCR prints the second '11' as '1i'; the preceding sentence confirms the number 11.
  • The author wrote that these record findings, plus the case of R. P., suggest that United States experience is similar to that abroad.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the cases illustrate the potential hazard of asbestos exposure to both worker and neighbor. In the author's view, the evidence is impressive that asbestos exposure, often delayed in effect, will in the future be responsible for an important amount of pulmonary disease, especially chest tumors. The author added that new evidence points to a significant association with abdominal tumors.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Conventional and high resolution computed tomography in the diagnosis of asbestos-related diseases — D.A. Lynch, G. Gamsu, et al. (1989)
• Health-related quality of life in patients with lung cancer: validation of the Mexican-Spanish version and association with prognosis of the EORTC QLQ-LC13 questionnaire — Ó. Arrieta, C. Núñez-Valencia, et al. (2012)
• Malignant pleural disease — L. Bonomo, B. Feragalli, et al. (2000)
• Asbestos and malignant disease — R. Barnes (1972)
• Neoplastic Pericardial Disease — J.J. Maleszewski, N.S. Anavekar (2017)
• Asbestos: when the dust settles an imaging review of asbestos-related disease — H.D. Roach, G.J. Davies, et al. (2002)

Browse more research in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, or return to medical research.