The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology

Our medical research library holds 8 studies published in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology (1980–2016). Each entry links to the study's record on PubMed and, where there is one, to the publisher's page and a free full text. 7 have an abstract, the authors' own summary as PubMed records it: open "Abstract" to read it.

About the journal

• Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Published: 1980 to the present, United States
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0195-7910 (print), 1533-404X (electronic)
• Its record in the NLM Catalog

2010s

• Diagnosis of Asbestos-Related Diseases: The Mineralogist and Pathologist's Role in Medicolegal Field. S. Capella, D. Bellis, E. Belluso. 2016;37(1):24-8. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Because asbestos diseases represent a complex pattern of legal, social, and political issue, the involvement of the mineralogist and pathologist for a multidisciplinary assessment of its diagnosis helps investigate the relationship between mesothelioma or lung cancer and occupational or environmental asbestos exposure.In the present study, we consider the concentrations of asbestos bodies (ABs) detected by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the burden of different kinds of mineral fibers (among which is asbestos) identified by SEM combined with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), in 10 lung tissue samples of subjects with occupational and nonoccupational exposure to asbestos.In all subjects with occupational exposure to asbestos, more than 1000 ABs per gram of dry weight were detected both with OM and SEM; this concentration is internationally accepted as suggesting high probability of past occupational exposure to asbestos.In 9 lung samples of the 10 investigated by SEM-EDS different inorganic fibers were found. Asbestos fibers have been identified too, and more than 100,000 fibers per gram of dry weight were detected in subjects with occupational exposure; this concentration is internationally accepted as suggesting high probability of past occupational exposure to asbestos.Instead, when the ABs burden is low or moderate (such as in subjects with absent or probable asbestos exposure), the correlation between ABs concentration determined by OM and those determined by SEM is lost. Therefore, when the ABs value in OM is borderline, the SEM investigation became essential. Furthermore, the mineralogical analysis by SEM-EDS (identification and quantification of inorganic fibers in general and asbestos in particular) of the fibers detected in the lung tissues is very useful, if not necessary, to complete the pathological diagnosis of asbestos-related malignancies in medicolegal field.

2000s

• Asbestos body burden in decomposed human lungs. F. Mollo, M. Cravello, A. Andreozzi, et al. 2000;21(2):148-50. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  The authors discuss the influence of postmortem tissue decomposition on the lung asbestos body (AB) burden, with the aim of evaluating the reliability of data obtained from autopsies performed for medicolegal purposes several months after deaths in possible connection with asbestos-related pathology. Eight autopsy cases were selected, each one with occupational exposure considered very probable on the basis of the history or pathologic findings. In each case the AB concentrations were assessed soon after death in one lung and after periods of 1 to 18 months in the others, which had been stored in sealed containers without fixation. AB concentrations consistently decreased with time in rotten lungs. The counts in some cases became negative a few months after death, even in cases with very high AB counts at first examination. It may be reasonably inferred that, in putrefied lungs from corpses exhumed after months of internment, the counts in digested tissues and the screening of histologic sections for AB may give false-negative results.

1990s

• Sudden death of an elderly man with multiple malignant neoplasms. L.R. Boglioli, M.L. Taff, W.U. Spitz, et al. 1991;12(3):265-71. Case report PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  With the lengthening of the human life span, cancer has become an increasingly important medical problem for the aged. It is not uncommon to find multiple primary neoplasms in elderly individuals. We recently investigated the death of an elderly man who had died suddenly and had three incidental malignant neoplasms, including a pleural mesothelioma, first diagnosed at autopsy. The importance of performing a complete medicolegal autopsy for epidemiological and statistical purposes is emphasized.

• Brake mechanics, asbestos, and disease risk. M. Huncharek. 1990;11(3):236-40. Review PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Health risks posed by inhalable asbestos fibers are known to exist in a variety of industrial and nonindustrial settings. Although early studies described an increased risk of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma in asbestos-industry workers, subsequent research revealed the existence of a potential asbestos-related health hazard in nonasbestos industries such as the textile and railroad industries. Brake mechanics and garage workers constitute a large work force with potential exposures to levels of asbestos capable of producing disease. Unfortunately, the health risk faced by these workers has received little attention. This article briefly discusses currently available information on the asbestos health risks of workers in this setting, and highlights the need for further investigations of this occupational group.

1980s

• Pseudomesotheliomatous carcinoma of the lung with asbestos exposure. J. Simonsen. 1986;7(1):49-51. Case report PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  A case of peripheral lung carcinoma clinically and anatomically simulating a malignant mesothelioma in a man who had been exposed to silicium as well as asbestos during more than 20 years of employment in industry is presented. Results of the microscopic examination of routine, stained sections were inconclusive and the importance of demonstrating mucin in the neoplastic cells by use of special staining is emphasized.

• Diseases associated with asbestos exposure. Diagnostic perspectives in forensic pathology. T. Ehrenreich, I.J. Selikoff. 1983;4(1):63-72. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Asbestos, a fibrous mineral, has unique physical and chemical properties, including resistance to heat, acids, and other chemicals; flexibility; and great tensile strength. The fibers subdivide into unit fibrils of molecular dimensions, resulting in a vast mineral surface area which has a direct bearing on its unusual features and its numerous applications. Its biological effects, which include fibrogenesis and carcinogenesis, may be related to the cellular reaction, to its large specific surface, or to the size and shape of the fibers. Its oncogenic action may be multiplied by other carcinogens, principally cigarette smoking. There is clinical, pathologic, and epidemiologic evidence that exposure to asbestos, following a long latent period, constitutes an important health hazard. Direct occupational exposure, followed by a long lapsed period after the initial exposure, is associated with pleural plaques and pleural effusion, pulmonary parenchymal fibrosis (asbestosis), pulmonary carcinoma, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and other neoplasms. Indirect exposure may also entail an increased risk of lung disease or mesothelioma or both. Medicolegal investigation of suspected cases includes a lifetime occupational history, clinical history including smoking habits, radiological findings, clinical evidence of asbestosis, and may require detection of asbestos tissue burden.

• Asbestos-related diseases. Algorithm for forensic pathological diagnosis. T. Ehrenreich, T. Espinosa, A.M. Langer, et al. 1982;3(4):315-21. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  The pathological diagnosis and proof of asbestos causation in environmental-occupational diseases is based on a spectrum of increasingly sophisticated determinations with greater confidence in detection of asbestos bodies and fibers. These include the following: pathology (histology) and/or thick smears of lung, microincineration, bulk chemical digestion, and electron beam instruments. The requisites of medical and forensic asbestos causation differ, and do not always require the full range of these analytical techniques. The need and significance of some of these determinations, as expressed in number of asbestos bodies and fibers, may be related in many cases to the evidence of asbestosis; to the gross and microscopic pathological findings (asbestosis, lung carcinoma, mesothelioma); the exposure history (type, duration, intensity, and period of latency); and nature of the asbestos mineral. An algorithm for the forensic pathological diagnosis of asbestosis and of asbestos-related diseases is proposed.

• Forensic detection and investigation of occupational-environmental disease. T. Ehrenreich, I.J. Selikoff. 1980;1(4):325-33. PubMed · Publisher

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