Pulmonary Asbestosis

Our plain-English summary of Pulmonary Asbestosis, by W.B. Soper (Transactions of the American Climatological and Clinical Association. American Climatological and Clinical Association, 1930).

The study

• Author: W.B. Soper
• Journal: Transactions of the American Climatological and Clinical Association. American Climatological and Clinical Association
• Published: 1930;46:210-24
• Read it: PubMed · Free full text

In plain English

This 1930 article reported a single case and reviewed the earlier, mostly English, medical writing on pulmonary asbestosis. The patient was a 30-year-old man admitted to the William Wirt Winchester Hospital on May 26, 1929, with symptoms suggesting tuberculosis. He had worked in an asbestos factory since age 17, making brake linings that he said were 30 per cent asbestos fiber and 70 per cent cotton. Ten sputum specimens tested negative for tuberculosis. X-rays showed fine, diffuse shadowing, more marked over the lower two-thirds of both lungs. When re-examined in April 1930, his shortness of breath was the striking feature and his vital capacity was 1350 c.c., 29 per cent. A definite change on X-ray could not be determined. The review section summarized other researchers' X-ray, autopsy, laboratory and animal work. The author concluded that the case seemed typical of pulmonary asbestosis, possibly with a minimal tuberculosis superimposed. The author noted that their own knowledge was limited to this one case, and that the patient had not died.

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 with literature review
• Who was studied: One man, aged 30, admitted to the William Wirt Winchester Hospital (West Haven, Connecticut) on May 26, 1929, and re-examined April 9, 1930
• Exposure: Work in an asbestos factory from age 17, with more or less constant dust exposure, making brake linings described as 30 per cent asbestos fiber and 70 per cent cotton; fiber type not specified
• Main results:
  • Ten sputum specimens from the patient were negative for tubercle bacilli
  • The patient's X-rays showed diffuse fine shadowing, more marked over the lower two-thirds of both lungs
  • At re-examination in April 1930, shortness of breath was the striking feature
  • The patient's vital capacity at re-examination was 1350 c.c., 29 per cent
  • No definite X-ray change could be determined between the two sets of films
  • The case was judged to be pulmonary asbestosis, possibly with minimal tuberculosis superimposed
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the case seemed typical of pulmonary asbestosis, and that the condition should always be suspected when there has been exposure to asbestos dust
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Vital capacity was not measured at the original admission, so it could not be compared
  • The later X-ray films were exposed differently from the earlier ones
  • The author's personal experience was limited to one case, and that patient had not died

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestosis.

Related studies

• Inhibition of lung injury, inflammation, and interstitial pulmonary fibrosis by polyethylene glycol-conjugated catalase in a rapid inhalation model of asbestosis — B.T. Mossman, J.P. Marsh, et al. (1990)
• Pulmonary endpoints (lung carcinomas and asbestosis) following inhalation exposure to asbestos — B.T. Mossman, M. Lippmann, et al. (2011)
• Pulmonary Asbestosis — W.E. Cooke (1927)
• Pulmonary asbestosis: CT study of subpleural curvilinear shadow. Work in progress — H. Yoshimura, M. Hatakeyama, et al. (1986)
• Experimental asbestosis. The development of lung cancer in rats with pulmonary deposits of chrysotile asbestos dust — P. Gross, R.T. DeTreville, et al. (1967)
• Chrysotile-induced asbestosis: changes in the free cell population, pulmonary surfactant and whole lung tissue of rats — T.D. Tetley, P.M. Hext, et al. (1976)

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