Pulmonary mineral dust. A study of ninety patients by electron microscopy, electron microanalysis, and electron microdiffraction

Our plain-English summary of Pulmonary mineral dust. A study of ninety patients by electron microscopy, electron microanalysis, and electron microdiffraction, by J.P. Berry, P. Henoc, P. Galle, et al (The American Journal of Pathology, 1976).

The study

• Authors: J.P. Berry, P. Henoc, P. Galle, R. Pariente
• Journal: The American Journal of Pathology
• Published: 1976;83(3):427-56
• Cited by: 47 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy.

Abstract

The results of a study of 90 patients are presented. Intrapulmonary mineral deposits were characterized by electron diffraction and electron probe microanalysis. Using this method, pneumoconioses may be distinguidhed from other pneumopathies. In cases of pneumoconiosis, there exists a specific relationship between the etiology of the dust exposure and the crystallographic characteristics of the intrapulmonary deposits. The nature of the deposits may be indicative of a specific type of pneumoconiosis. This method is particularly useful in differentiating between asbestos bodies and ferruginous bodies. The value of the method in general and its importance in the study of pneumoconiosis are discussed.

In plain English

This laboratory study examined lung tissue from patients at two suburban Paris hospitals. It described 40 specimens from patients without pneumoconiosis and more than 50 from patients with pneumoconiosis. The authors examined mineral dust particles inside lung cells with an electron microscope. They combined two tests: electron probe microanalysis, which shows the chemical elements in a particle, and electron microdiffraction, which shows its crystal structure. In lungs without pneumoconiosis, the deposits contained silicon, aluminum, iron, titanium and carbon, and were not crystalline. In pneumoconiosis lungs, most deposits were crystalline, and about twenty minerals recurred. In silicosis these included quartz, micas and clays. Some coated fibers had asbestos cores, identified as crocidolite (blue asbestos), and other amphiboles were also found. Other coated fibers, called ferruginous bodies, looked the same but had cores of carbon, sillimanite, sericite or clay. The authors concluded that finding crystals in the lung can help tell pneumoconiosis apart from other lung diseases, and that their combined method can identify the core fiber. The article does not say how many patients had each finding.

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 laboratory study of human lung tissue specimens using electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis and electron microdiffraction
• Who was studied: Lung tissue from patients at suburban Paris hospitals (Hopital Antoine Beclere, Clamart, and Hopital Intercommunal, Creteil), obtained at biopsy, surgery or autopsy: 40 specimens from patients without pneumoconiosis and more than 50 from patients with pneumoconiosis (90 patients in total according to the title and abstract)
• Exposure: Inhaled mineral dust. Some patients were exposed only to ordinary atmospheric pollution; others had pneumoconiosis, including silicosis, coalworker's pneumoconiosis and cases with asbestos bodies. Individual exposure histories and doses are not reported.
• Main results:
  • In lungs from patients without pneumoconiosis, the mineral deposits inside macrophages contained silicon, aluminum, iron, titanium and carbon, and diffraction showed them to be amorphous (non-crystalline)
  • In lungs from patients with pneumoconiosis, crystalline patterns were obtained without prior treatment of the deposits, and most mineral deposits were in the crystalline state
  • About twenty minerals recurred across the pneumoconiosis cases examined
  • In silicosis, the minerals most often found were quartz, micas and clays; clays were the minerals most often found in all cases of pneumoconiosis
  • In asbestos bodies, the central fiber was a single asbestos crystal, identified in the illustrated case as crocidolite (blue asbestos); other amphiboles were also found
  • Ferruginous bodies looked identical to asbestos bodies, but their central fiber was not asbestos. Depending on the case, it was carbon, sillimanite (aluminium silicate), sericite (white mica) or clay. The iron coating corresponded to FeO(OH).
  • Other minerals often found in pneumoconiosis included talc, cristobalite, chlorites (vermiculite), micas and spinelles. In coalworker's pneumoconiosis, carbon deposits were ringed by fine particles of silicon.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the presence of crystals in lung tissue allows pneumoconiosis to be distinguished from other lung diseases. They considered the combination of microprobe analysis and microdiffraction on ultrathin sections, at that time, the only method able to accurately determine the nature of the central fiber in asbestos or ferruginous bodies. They also concluded that pneumoconioses of different origins show different and often characteristic mineral deposits.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Diffraction patterns alone were generally not enough to identify a specific crystal without the chemical data from microprobe analysis
  • The most common clay diffraction pattern is the same for all clays, so clays often could not be told apart from it
  • The microtome knife often distorted clay structures, creating artifacts in the diffraction patterns

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Talc and vermiculite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pneumoconiosis, Etiology, Asbestos Bodies, Ferruginous Bodies.

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• Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis of mineral deposits in lungs of a patient with pleural mesothelioma — E.M. Ophus, G. Mowé, et al. (1980)
• The ability of mineral dusts and fibres to initiate lipid peroxidation. Part I: parameters which determine this ability — M. Gulumian (1999)
• Accumulation of mixed mineral dusts in the lungs of rats during chronic inhalation exposure — C.H. McMillan, A.D. Jones, et al. (1989)
• Electron microscopy analysis of mineral fibers in human lung tissue — K.H. Friedrichs, M. Brockmann, et al. (1992)
• Lung dust content in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a study with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x ray analysis — E. Monsó, J.M. Tura, et al. (1991)

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