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Vol.48 No.4 contents

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- Original Article -

Asbestosis Caused by Suspected Low-grade Occupational Exposure Analyzed on the Bases of Resected Lobes

Yoshinori Kawabata¹, Eishin Hoshi², Katsumi Murai², Tomohiko Ikeya², Nobumasa Takahashi², Yuichi Saito², Tetsu Kanauchi³, Mikio Ubukata⁴, Noboru Takayanagi⁴, Yutaka Sugita^4
1Division of Pathology, ²Department of Thoracic Surgery, ³Department of Radiology, ⁴Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Saitama Prefectural Cardiovascular and Respiratory Center, Japan

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Objective. We investigated whether low-grade occupational exposure causes asbestosis and the relationship between pleural plaque (PP) and the usual interstitial pneumonia pattern (UIP/P). Study Design. Subjects counted of 1324 subjects (971 men, 353 women) who underwent pulmonary surgery consisting of more than lobectomy. The presence of more than 1.0 asbestos body per 1 histological slide in 3 slides with UIP/P was diagnosed as asbestosis and less than 1.0 asbestos body on 1 slide was diagnosed as suspected asbestosis. Results. Asbestosis was detected in 7 and suspected in 4 cases. There were less than 30 asbestos bodies per 1 slide in all but one case. All cases of asbestosis or suspected asbestosis were men. Centrilobular fibrosis was seen in 4, PP in 8, pleural thickening in 8 and pleural adhesion in 7 cases. Secondary, among 38 patients (36 men, 2 women) demonstrating PP, 17 showed UIP/P among which 7 patients showed either asbestosis or suspected asbestosis. Among 1286 cases without PP, 198 showed UIP/P (including 4 cases of asbestosis). The frequency of UIP/P including and excluding asbestosis was significantly higher in the PP-positive subgroup (<0.01 and <0.05). Conclusion. Asbestosis might be included among idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis cases. Furthermore, the presence of PP might be a risk factor for UIP/P.
key words: Lobectomy, Usual interstitial pneumonia pattern, Pleural plaque, Asbestosis

Received: November 13, 2007
Accepted: April 28, 2008

JJLC 48 (4): 254-260, 2008