Follow-up study of pleural hyalinosis in individuals not exposed to asbestos dust

Our plain-English summary of Follow-up study of pleural hyalinosis in individuals not exposed to asbestos dust, by M. Navrátil, K. Morávková, F. Trippé (Environmental Research, 1978).

The study

• Authors: M. Navrátil, K. Morávková, F. Trippé
• Journal: Environmental Research
• Published: 1978;15(1):108-18
• Cited by: 7 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

It was shown previously that the occurrence of pleural hyalinosis in a population with direct or indirect exposure to asbestos was of significantly higher importance than in a population without demonstrable exposure. It follows from recent results that the complicated form of pleural hyalinosis is due to direct asbestos exposure while a simple form is found in persons without any asbestos exposure within a 5-year follow-up period. Not even causes of death were connected with pleural processes in deceased persons during the follow-up time. The conclusion is reached that asbestos mineral retained in the lung and pleura is the main cause of pleural hyalinosis influencing its dynamics. However, it is not the only factor as proven by the same morphological findings in persons not exposed to asbestos. Follow-up dynamics of development shows ability of proliferation in hyalinosis only on the basis of long-term exposure to asbestos.

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

In plain English

This Czechoslovak study followed people with pleural hyalinosis (a thickening of the lining around the lungs that can calcify) found by 1969-1970 X-ray screening of 8133 residents aged 40 and older in the Nymburk district. Screening flagged 36 people (0.44%) with suspected findings. One did not attend the detailed examination, and four of the 35 examined had other conditions, leaving 31. Six (19.3%) had worked briefly, 4 months to 2 years, in an asbestos plant before the Second World War. The other 25 had no asbestos contact found in their life histories. By 1974, 22 were re-examined, one refused, and eight (25.8%) had died, three of them from the briefly exposed group. Among 19 never-exposed people, X-rays were unchanged in 10 and showed more calcification in 9. Among 3 briefly exposed people, 1 was unchanged and 2 showed simple progression. No one developed the complicated form, and no death was related to the pleural process. The authors concluded that complications such as effusion or mesothelioma are most probably connected with asbestos in the lung and pleura, as in people exposed for a long time.

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: Follow-up (longitudinal) clinical and X-ray study of people with pleural hyalinosis found in a population screening
• Who was studied: 36 people with suspected pleural changes, found among 8133 people aged 40 and older screened by X-ray in the Nymburk district (Middle Bohemia, Czechoslovakia) in 1969-1970. After detailed examination, 31 with typical pleural findings were followed to 1974.
• Exposure: 25 of the 31 people had no occupational, household or other asbestos exposure identified from their life histories. Six had worked for short periods (4 months to 2 years) in an asbestos plant before the Second World War.
• Main results:
  • One of the 36 people with suspected findings did not attend the detailed examination, so 35 were examined in detail.
  • Of the 35 people examined in detail, four were excluded because they had other processes (one post-traumatic hemothorax; the others had calcifications in lung tissue, not pleura). This left 31 people with typical pleural findings.
  • At follow-up, 22 of the 31 people were examined. One refused, and eight (25.8%) had died during the follow-up period.
  • Three of the six people with previous short-term asbestos exposure were among the eight who died.
  • Among the eight deaths, half were from neoplasia of different organs (one each: lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, leukemia, retothelosarcoma). The other half were from myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis with diabetes, cor pulmonale in chronic obstructive lung disease, and pulmonary tuberculosis.
  • Among the 19 re-examined people never exposed to asbestos, X-ray findings were unchanged in 10 and showed increased calcified layers in 9.
  • Among the 3 re-examined people with early short-term asbestos exposure, the condition was unchanged in 1 and showed simple progression in 2.
  • No case of the complicated form of hyalinosis was observed in the Nymburk district group within 5 years.
  • The causes of death were not related to the pleural process.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that complications of pleural hyalinosis, such as pleural effusion or mesothelioma, are most probably connected with asbestos mineral in the lung and pleura, as in persons exposed for a long time. They also concluded that asbestos is the significant but not the only factor in pleural hyalinosis.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors acknowledged that a 5-year follow-up might be considered too short. They noted that earlier X-ray results going back to 1960 were also known.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Pleura.

Related studies

• Development of pleural hyalinosis in long term studies of persons exposed to asbestos dust — M. Navrátil, J. Dobiás (1973)
• Prevalence of pleural calcification in persons exposed to asbestos dust, and in the general population in the same district — M. Navrátil, F. Trippé (1972)
• Chest pain in asbestos-exposed individuals with benign pleural and parenchymal disease — S. Mukherjee, N. de Klerk, et al. (2000)
• Effect of smoking on attack rates of pulmonary and pleural lesions related to exposure to asbestos dust — G.H. McMillan, R.J. Pethybridge, et al. (1980)
• Proteome analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage in individuals from Metsovo, nonoccupationally exposed to asbestos — D.T. Archimandriti, Y.A. Dalavanga, et al. (2009)
• Pleural calcification, pleural mesotheliomas, and bronchial cancers caused by tremolite dust — S. Yazicioglu, R. Ilçayto, et al. (1980)

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