Electron microscopic findings in the lungs of miners

Our plain-English summary of Electron microscopic findings in the lungs of miners, by G. Harrison, N.L. Lapp (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1972).

The study

• Authors: G. Harrison, N.L. Lapp
• Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Published: 1972;200:73-93
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Portions of four lungs were prepared for study by electron microscopy. Three were obtained at autopsy from underground coal miners and one at biopsy from a boiler repairman at a power plant that burned bituminous coal. All four lungs contained large amounts of collagen and elastic fibers. The autopsy specimens showed changes such as membrane disruption and vesiculation, probably resulting from postmortem autolysis. All four lungs contained a number of particles of various types. Four were common to all of the lungs: (1) hard, dense needle-like material, (2) smooth, angular pieces, (3) larger rectangular chunks with chatter marks, and (4) granular aggregates that often contained some of the other types of particles. In addition, a variety of round and square particles were seen, and in one case asbestos bodies were noted. Positive identification of the types of particles seen was not possible; thus, their specific role in producing the pathological changes observed is uncertain.

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

In plain English

This 1972 report described electron microscope examination of lung tissue from four men who had been exposed to bituminous coal dust at work and were treated at West Virginia University's hospital. Three were underground coal miners whose tissue was taken at autopsy. The fourth, a 42-year-old non-smoking boiler repairman at a coal-burning power station, gave tissue through a biopsy during heart valve surgery. Chest x-rays of the three miners showed complicated coal workers' pneumoconiosis. The boiler repairman's x-ray was not enough to diagnose definite pneumoconiosis. All four lungs contained large amounts of collagen and elastic fibers. Four kinds of particles were found in every lung: hard needle-like material, smooth angular pieces, larger rectangular chunks, and granular aggregates. In the boiler repairman only, small asbestos bodies were seen inside a couple of alveolar macrophages, a type of lung cell. The article did not name an asbestos fiber type. The authors said changes such as membrane disruption and vesiculation in the autopsy samples probably came from post-death tissue breakdown. They concluded that the particles could not be positively identified, so their role in the lung changes was uncertain.

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: Descriptive case series: electron and light microscopy of lung tissue from four subjects
• Who was studied: Four men exposed to bituminous coal dust at work. Three were mainly underground coal miners (ages 60, 64 and 51), with tissue taken at autopsy. One was a 42-year-old boiler repairman at a coal-burning power plant, with tissue taken by surgical biopsy in 1970. All were seen at West Virginia University Hospital/Medical Center, Morgantown.
• Exposure: Occupational bituminous coal dust: underground coal mining (face worker, tipple man, roof bolter) and boiler repair at a coal-burning power station. Asbestos was not the exposure studied; asbestos bodies were an incidental finding in one subject.
• Main results:
  • All four lungs contained large amounts of collagen and elastic fibers.
  • Four particle types were found in all four lungs: needle-like material, angular pieces, rectangular chunks and granular aggregates.
  • In the boiler repairman (Case 4), asbestos bodies were seen in a couple of alveolar macrophages. They were described as relatively small for asbestos bodies, about 5 by 1 microns; the scanned text shows the micron symbol as 'p'. No fiber type was named.
  • Although the boiler repairman was not an underground coal miner, the particles in his lung were very similar to those in the three miners.
  • The boiler repairman's chest x-ray showed a few small opacities, but not enough to diagnose definite pneumoconiosis. The three miners' x-rays showed complicated coal workers' pneumoconiosis: Stage A in Cases 1 and 2, Stage C in Case 3.
  • Case 2, a 64-year-old miner, died of bronchogenic carcinoma (a lung cancer) of the right lower lobe with widespread metastases. His tissue for electron microscopy was taken from non-cancerous lung.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the particles could not be positively identified, so their specific role in causing the observed lung changes is uncertain.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Changes such as membrane disruption and vesiculation were seen in the three autopsy specimens but not in the biopsy. The authors attributed them to probable post-death breakdown of tissue (postmortem autolysis).
  • Comparing particles with published descriptions only suggested what they might be made of; it did not identify them.
  • In Case 3, the tissue examined was largely fibrous connective tissue, and no air sacs had yet been identified in it.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Autopsy, Biopsy, Bituminous, Collagen, Asbestos Bodies.

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• Investigative techniques in the laboratory study of coal workers' pneumoconiosis: recent advances at the cellular level — J.S. Harington (1972)
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• Pulmonary mineral dust. A study of ninety patients by electron microscopy, electron microanalysis, and electron microdiffraction — J.P. Berry, P. Henoc, et al. (1976)

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