Mineralogical analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid as an aid to diagnosis of "imported" pleural asbestosis

Our plain-English summary of Mineralogical analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid as an aid to diagnosis of "imported" pleural asbestosis, by P. De Vuyst, M. Mairesse, A. Gaudichet, et al (Thorax, 1983).

The study

• Authors: P. De Vuyst, M. Mairesse, A. Gaudichet, P. Dumortier, J. Jedwab, J.C. Yernault
• Journal: Thorax
• Published: 1983;38(8):628-9
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 18 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Summary of the article

The authors reported an "imported" case of pleural disease related to non-occupational asbestos exposure, in which the diagnosis was established by bronchoalveolar lavage. The patient was a 57-year-old Turkish woman referred in Belgium for investigation of bilateral pleural thickening. She was born in Karakalar in the Afyon area of Anatolia and had lived in Belgium for 23 years. She had never worked, had never smoked and had no remarkable respiratory symptoms. The chest radiograph showed bilateral nodular pleural thickening with diaphragmatic calcification. Lung function tests showed a mild obstructive defect with normal gas transfer. An open pleural biopsy showed hyaline plaques on the parietal pleura, with no signs of mesothelioma or of asbestos fibres. A 25 ml sample of lavage fluid was digested, filtered and examined by optical microscopy, which found typical asbestos bodies in large numbers (117 per ml of fluid). Transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis identified the fibres as tremolite asbestos (MgO 21%, SiO2 52%, CaO 16%, FeO 10%). No erionite was found. The authors concluded that lavage confirmed the diagnosis of benign pleural asbestosis. They noted that in their experience such a result had been found only in people with definite asbestos exposure. They also noted that tremolite occurs in the soil around Afyon, where local asbestos-containing material is used for home construction and whitewashing.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This is a case report about one patient in Belgium. A 57-year-old Turkish woman was born in Karakalar in the Afyon area of Anatolia and had lived in Belgium for 23 years. She had never worked and had never smoked. She was referred because of thickening of the pleura (the lining around the lungs) on both sides. Her chest X-ray showed nodular pleural thickening on both sides, with calcification on the diaphragm. She had no notable breathing symptoms. Lung function tests showed a mild obstructive defect and normal gas transfer. A biopsy showed hyaline plaques on the outer (parietal) pleura, with no signs of mesothelioma. Fluid washed from her lungs during bronchoscopy (bronchoalveolar lavage) contained 117 asbestos bodies per ml. Electron microscope analysis identified the fibres as tremolite asbestos, and no erionite was found. The authors described her pleural disease as related to non-occupational asbestos exposure. They concluded that the lavage analysis confirmed the diagnosis of benign pleural asbestosis. As a single case, it provides no rate of disease.

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 report (single patient)
• Who was studied: One 57-year-old Turkish woman living in Belgium, investigated for pleural thickening on both sides. She was born in Karakalar in the Afyon area of Anatolia, had lived in Belgium for 23 years, had never worked, and had no history of smoking or respiratory disease.
• Exposure: Non-occupational asbestos exposure. The fibres found in her lavage fluid were identified as tremolite asbestos.
• Main results:
  • Her chest X-ray showed nodular pleural thickening on both sides, with calcification of the diaphragm and no pleural fluid.
  • Lung function tests showed a mild obstructive ventilatory defect and a normal gas-transfer factor.
  • An open pleural biopsy showed hyaline plaques on the parietal pleura.
  • The biopsy showed no signs of malignancy (mesothelioma), and no asbestos fibres were seen in it.
  • In a 25 ml sample of her bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, typical asbestos bodies were found in large numbers: 117 per ml of fluid.
  • Electron microscopy with x-ray analysis identified the fibres as tremolite asbestos (MgO 21%, SiO2 52%, CaO 16%, FeO 10%).
  • No erionite (zeolite) was found among the fibrous silicates.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, in this case, bronchoalveolar lavage confirmed the diagnosis of benign pleural asbestosis by showing a very considerable number of asbestos bodies. They stated that, in their experience, such a result had been found only in people with definite exposure to asbestos and with pleural or parenchymal asbestosis.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL), Asbestos Exposure, Bilateral, Pleural Thickening, Chest X-Ray, Pleural Biopsy, Parietal Pleura, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Lymphocyte subpopulations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in asbestos workers — A.R. Gellert, M.G. Macey, et al. (1985)
• Asbestos exposure assessment by mineralogical analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid — P. Sartorelli, G. Scancarello, et al. (2001)
• Biochemical components of bronchoalveolar lavage in early experimental asbestosis of the sheep: phospholipase A2 activity, prostaglandin E2 and proteins — P. Sirois, G. Drapeau, et al. (1983)
• Diagnostic value of asbestos bodies in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid — P. De Vuyst, P. Dumortier, et al. (1987)
• Asbestos bodies in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids of brake lining and asbestos cement workers — P. Dumortier, P. De Vuyst, et al. (1990)
• Erionite bodies and fibres in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of residents from Tuzköy, Cappadocia, Turkey — P. Dumortier, L. Coplü, et al. (2001)

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