Inorganic fibres in the lung tissue of Hungarian and German lung cancer patients |
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| Authors: | K Rödelsperger A Mándi A Tossavainen B Brückel P Barbisan H-J Woitowitz |
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| Institution: | (1) Institute and Out-Patient Clinic for Occupational and Social Medicine of the Justus-Liebig, University of Giessen, Aulweg 129/III, 35392 Giessen, Germany Fax: +49-641-9941339 e-mail: Klaus.Roedelsperger@arbmed.med.uni-giessen.de, DE;(2) Fodor József National Center for Public Health, Budapest, Hungary, HU;(3) Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland, FI |
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| Abstract: | Objective: To ascertain the lung burden of asbestos fibres in Hungarian lung cancer patients in comparison with the cumulative asbestos
exposure estimated from the occupational history. Methods: For 25 Hungarian lung cancer patients, lung tissue fibre analysis was performed by scanning transmission electron microscopy
(STEM) and counting of ferruginous bodies (FBs) by light microscopy. Cumulative asbestos exposure in fibre-years was assessed
from a standardised occupational history using the report “fibre years” of the German Berufsgenossenschaften. Results: Median and maximum concentrations of fibres longer 5 μm per gram dry lung tissue (g dry) were 0.03 and 7.38 million fibres/g
dry for chrysotile, 0.00 and 0.21 million fibres/g dry for amphibole and 0.22 and 0.62 million fibres/g dry for other mineral
fibres (OMFs). The maximum values were observed in one patient for whom a high asbestos exposure was evident in advance from
the occupational history. Conclusions: In comparison with reference values obtained by the same method for German patients with no indication of workplace asbestos
exposure, increased concentrations of more than 0.2 million chrysotile fibres/g dry were obtained for six of the 25 Hungarian
patients (24%). For one of them, the second highest estimate of a workplace exposure of 60 fibre-years and the highest tissue
concentration of 7.38 million chrysotile fibres/g dry substantiate a high probability of a causal relationship to asbestos.
A further comparison can be made with the results for 66 German patients treated by surgical lung resection for a disorder
other than mesothelioma, mainly lung cancer. For the Hungarian lung cancer patients, similar amounts of chrysotile but distinctly
lower amounts of amphibole fibres and distinctly higher amounts of OMFs were observed. A correlation between exposure estimates
from occupational history and concentration of fibres in the lung tissue was observed for amphibole (Spearman: R=0.66, P < 0.001, Pearson: R=0.50, P=0.01) and for chrysotile (Pearson: R=0.48, P=0.02).
Received: 3 May 2000 / Accepted: 14 September 2000 |
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| Keywords: | Lung cancer Lung tissue fibre analysis Asbestos Other minerals Cumulative exposure |
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