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Am J Ind Med 2021 May 3. Epub 2021 May 3.

Curtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, Western, Australia.

Background: The use of low dose CT (LDCT) chest is becoming more widespread in occupationally exposed populations. There is a knowledge gap as to heterogeneity in severity and the natural course of asbestosis after low levels of exposure. This study reports the characteristics of LDCT-detected interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA). Read More

Eur J Intern Med 2021 Apr 27. Epub 2021 Apr 27.

Department of Medical Sciences, Surgery and Neurosciences, Respiratory Disease and Lung Transplant Unit, Siena University, Siena, Italy.

Background: Broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) is a safe diagnostic procedure, useful for differentiating fibrotic lung disorders and for excluding malignancy and infection. A recent multicenter study demonstrated a new, relatively sensitive, and specific index called Bronchoalveolar Cytology Threshold (BCT), useful for distinguishing healthy individuals from patients with lung diseases.

Objectives: In our study, BCT was applied for the first time to the analysis of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), investigating its potential for differential diagnosis. Read More

Medicina (Kaunas) 2021 Apr 21;57(5). Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 05278, Korea.

The clinical diagnosis of asbestosis is primarily based on chest radiographic evidence of pleural thickening and interstitial fibrosis combined with a history of exposure to asbestos. We report herein the case of a 65-year-old man with asbestosis pathologically diagnosed after surgical lung biopsy. He had a work history including farming, cementing, and casting and was admitted with dyspnea. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2021 Apr;100(17):e25631

Department of Respiratory Medicine and Critical Care Medicine, West China Hospital/West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University.

Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) has a poor prognosis and lacks specific biomarkers for early diagnosis, assessment of disease severity, and prognosis. YKL-40 levels were found to be elevated in patients with ILD, but these results are inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to accurately study the relation between YKL-40 and ILD. Read More

J Occup Environ Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, Clinical Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 8 Workers' Stadium South Road, Chao-Yang District, Beijing 100020, China (Zhou, Xue, Fan, Wu, Ma, Ye), Department of Occupational Diseases and Chemical Poisoning, the Fifth People's Hospital of Suzhou, the Affiliated Infectious Hospital of Soochow University, 10 Guangqian Road, Xiang-cheng District, Suzhou 215131, Jiangsu Province, China (Zhou).

Objectives: To explore the circulating metabolites and related pathways in silicosis and asbestosis exposure to different mineral dusts.

Methods: Plasma of 30 silicosis, 30 asbestosis, and 20 healthy controls was analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Metabolic networks and the relevance of the identified metabolic derangements were explored. Read More

Med Lav 2021 Apr 20;112(2):115-122. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine - Section of Occupational Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro.

Introduction: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and asbestosis are pulmonary interstitial diseases that may present overlapping clinical aspects in the full-blown phase of the disease. For both clinical entities the gold standard for diagnosis is histological examination, but its execution poses ethical problems, especially when performed for preventive or forensic purposes.

Objective: To evaluate the application of internationally accepted clinical, anamnestic and radiological criteria for differential diagnosis between asbestosis and IPF, and to assess the ability to discriminate between the two diseases. Read More

Ann Med Surg (Lond) 2021 Apr 23;64:102245. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Occupational lung diseases are lung conditions caused or made worse by materials when a person is exposed to a workplace. The diagnosis of an occupational disease is important for workers' decision to continue work and for their eligibility under compensation programmes. We revisit the existing lung diseases that are closely associated with the occupation at the workplace namely occupational asthma, silicosis, black lung disease, farmers' lung disease, asbestos-linked disease, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Read More

Am J Ind Med 2021 Jun 8;64(6):476-487. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Objective: We sought to characterize detailed patterns of mesothelioma and asbestosis incidence in the workforce as part of an occupational disease surveillance program in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: The Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS) cohort was established using workers' compensation claims data and includes 2.18 million workers employed from 1983 to 2014. Read More

Chem Res Toxicol 2021 Apr 22;34(4):936-951. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123 Broadway, New South Wales 2007, Australia.

Asbestos and zeolites are silicate-based minerals, linked inextricably via paradoxical similarities and differences which have emanated from different geological epochs. Both have been employed in the service of humanity through millennia: asbestos, for its "inextinguishable" quality of being an insulator against heat and fire; zeolite, a "boiling stone" with its volcanic and marine sedimentary rock origins, for its propensity to adsorb water and remove metals and toxins. Serious adverse health effects observed in asbestos miners as long ago as the 1st Century AD did not halt the rising popularity of asbestos. Read More

Pneumologie 2021 Mar 16;75(3):201-205. Epub 2021 Mar 16.

Ruhrlandklinik Universitätsmedizin Essen, Ambulantes Lungenzentrum Essen, Essen.

The S2k guideline "Diagnostics and assessment of occupational asbestos-related diseases" was updated in November 2020. This article summarizes the most important changes. There is a new reference to the risk of potentially high exposures to asbestos fibers when renovating plaster, fillers and adhesives containing asbestos. Read More

Zhonghua Lao Dong Wei Sheng Zhi Ye Bing Za Zhi 2021 02;39(2):81-84

Insights Imaging 2021 Mar 10;12(1):33. Epub 2021 Mar 10.

Department of Radiology, NHO Kinki-Chuo Chest Medical Center, 1180 Nagasone-cho, Kita-ku, Sakai City, Osaka, 591-8555, Japan.

Our understanding of the manifestations of pneumoconioses is evolving in recent years. Associations between novel exposures and diffuse interstitial lung disease have been newly recognized. In advanced asbestosis, two types of fibrosis are seen, probably related to dose of exposure, existence of pleural fibrosis, and the host factor status of the individual. Read More

FP Essent 2021 Mar;502:11-17

Florida State University College of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program at BayCare Health System, 1201 1st St S Suite 100A, Winter Haven, FL 33880.

Occupational lung diseases are caused by workplace inhalation of chemicals, dusts, or fumes. They include asbestosis, silicosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), and occupational asthma. These diseases have nonspecific respiratory symptoms and are only identified if an occupational history is taken. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 02 19;18(4). Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy.

Increased mortality due to malignant mesothelioma has been demonstrated by several epidemiologic studies in the area around Broni (a small town in Lombardy, northern Italy), where a factory producing asbestos cement was active between 1932 and 1993. Until now, the inorganic fiber burden in lungs has not been investigated in this population. The aim of this study is to assess the lung fiber burden in 72 individuals with previous occupational and/or anthropogenic environmental exposure to asbestos during the activity of an important asbestos cement factory. Read More

Occup Environ Med 2021 Feb 26. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

Research Unit of Internal Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

Objectives: Our aim was to investigate the pulmonary function test (PFT) results of patients with asbestosis and determine whether baseline PFTs and the risk-predicting models such as gender, age and physiologic (GAP) variables model and composite physiologic index (CPI) would be useful in predicting survival in these patients.

Methods: Demographics and PFTs of 100 patients with asbestosis were evaluated. The survival difference between the GAP stages was determined with Kaplan-Meier survival curves with statistical significance analysed with log-rank test. Read More

J Occup Med Toxicol 2021 Feb 23;16(1). Epub 2021 Feb 23.

Chair Em. of Environmental & Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Industries that mine, manufacture and sell asbestos or asbestos-containing products have a long tradition of promoting the use of asbestos, while placing the burden of economic and health costs on workers and society. This has been successfully done in recent years and decades in spite of the overwhelming evidence that all asbestos types are carcinogenic and cause asbestosis. In doing so, the asbestos industry has undermined the WHO campaign to reach a worldwide ban of asbestos and to eliminate asbestos-related diseases. Read More

Eur J Case Rep Intern Med 2020 18;7(12):002128. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA, USA.

Introduction: Primary malignant mesothelioma of the liver is an extremely rare cancer, with only 16 cases reported in the literature so far. Diagnosis is challenging due to morphological similarity with common liver cancers and the extreme rarity of the condition.

Case Description: We present the case of a 70-year-old man who was found to have an incidental liver mass which was diagnosed as primary malignant mesothelioma of the liver. Read More

Cell Rep 2021 Feb;34(6):108734

Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Laboratory of Immunology and Microbiology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Japan; PRESTO, JST, Kawaguchi, Japan. Electronic address:

Macrophage recognition and phagocytosis of crystals is critical for the associated fibrosis and cancer. Of note, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), the highly representative products of nanotechnology, induce macrophage NLRP3 inflammasome activation and cause asbestosis-like pathogenesis. However, it remains largely unknown how macrophages efficiently recognize MWCNTs on their cell surfaces. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 02 7;18(4). Epub 2021 Feb 7.

Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

Asbestos-related diseases (ARDs)-mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis-are well known as occupational diseases. As industrial asbestos use is eliminated, ARDs within the general community from para-occupational, environmental, and natural exposures are more prominent. ARD clusters have been studied in communities including Broni, Italy; Libby, Montana; Wittenoom, Western Australia; Karain, Turkey; Ambler, Pennsylvania; and elsewhere. Read More

Radiol Oncol 2021 01 26;55(2):179-186. Epub 2021 Jan 26.

Pharmacogenetics Laboratory, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Background: The study investigated the influence of and polymorphisms, as well as the influence of interactions between polymorphism and interactions between polymorphisms and asbestos exposure, on the risk of developing pleural plaques, asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma (MM).

Subjects And Methods: The cross sectional study included 940 asbestos-exposed subjects, among them 390 subjects with pleural plaques, 147 subjects with asbestosis, 225 subjects with MM and 178 subjects with no asbestos-related disease. rs17883901, rs41303970, null, null, rs1695 and rs1138272 genotypes were determined using PCR based methods. Read More

Epidemiol Prev 2020 Sep-Dec;44(5-6):In press

già Professore di epidemiologia dei tumori, Università di Torino, Torino.

Objectives: the Italian Epidemiological Association (AIE) intends to formulate assessments and recommendations on the most relevant and critical aspects in the preparation, conduct, and interpretation of epidemiological investigations on the health effects of exposure to asbestos and asbestos-like fibres.

Design, Setting, And Participants: the document was prepared by a working group of AIE associates, with a broad curriculum of epidemiological investigations, starting from the evaluation of scientific evidence, and was subsequently evaluated by the AIE governing body.

Results: the topics covered included: • consumption and presence of asbestos; • association between asbestos exposure and disease; • epidemiological surveillance of asbestos related diseases in Italy; • risk function for asbestos related diseases; • increased risk and anticipation of the disease; • interaction between asbestos and other carcinogens; • diagnosis in epidemiological studies; • assessment of exposure to asbestos; • epidemiological evidence on asbestos related diseases. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 01 20;18(3). Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.

The use of asbestos has been banned since 2009 in South Korea. However, there is still a risk of exposure to environmental asbestos originating from abandoned asbestos mines. We constructed a retrospective dynamic cohort using the National Health Insurance Database of South Korea. Read More

Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2021 May 6;94(4):763-771. Epub 2021 Jan 6.

Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Italian National Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL), Via Stefano Gradi 55, 00143, Rome, Italy.

Background: Asbestosis and silicosis are preventable fibrotic forms of pneumoconiosis. Decades ago, the World Health Organization began prevention campaigns for eliminating these diseases worldwide.

Purpose: To establish Italian hospitalization costs of asbestosis and silicosis in relation to national adopted prevention policies. Read More

Clin Chem 2021 Jan;67(2):363-373

Department of Tumor Biology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Background: Detection of asbestos-associated diseases like asbestosis or mesothelioma is still challenging. We sought to improve the diagnosis of benign asbestos-associated disease (BAAD) by detection of the protein cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (Cyr61) in human plasma.

Methods: Plasma Cyr61 was quantified using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Read More

Saf Health Work 2020 Dec 3;11(4):425-430. Epub 2020 Aug 3.

Department of Thoracic Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Background: Asbestos exposure is associated with the development of the cancer malignant mesothelioma (MM). Measurement of soluble mesothelin-related protein (SMRP) has been suggested as a method for detection of MM in its early stages. We prospectively examined SMRP levels in participants with asbestos exposure who are a group at a high risk of development of MM. Read More

Occup Environ Med 2020 Dec 15. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

Department of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, Clinical Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, No.8 Worker's Stadium, Chaoyang District. Beijing, China

Objectives: Telomerase gene variants that lead to accelerated telomere shortening are linked to progressive-fibrosing interstitial lung diseases. However, little is known about their relationships with pneumoconiosis. This study aimed to identify variants and leucocyte telomere lengths (LTL) in patients with silicosis or asbestosis. Read More

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020 12 14;117(52):33466-33473. Epub 2020 Dec 14.

Thoracic Oncology, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu, HI 96813;

Rare biallelic gene mutations cause Bloom syndrome. Whether heterozygous germline mutations () cause human cancer remains unclear. We sequenced the germline DNA of 155 mesothelioma patients (33 familial and 122 sporadic). Read More

J Environ Health Sci Eng 2020 Dec 14;18(2):1239-1246. Epub 2020 Sep 14.

Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Asbestos, as with other pollutants in the air, has adverse effects on the health of human beings and animals. Today, the relationship between presence of asbestos fibers in the air breathed by humans and developing serious diseases such as lung cancer (asbestosis) and mesothelioma has been proven. The objectives of this study were to monitor the levels of asbestos fibers in ambient air of Mashhad, Iran during 2018, and to draw its Geographic Information System (GIS) distribution map for the city. Read More

Nanomaterials (Basel) 2020 Dec 6;10(12). Epub 2020 Dec 6.

J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry CAS, Dolejškova 3, 182 23 Prague 8, Czech Republic.

Human data concerning exposure to nanoparticles are very limited, and biomarkers for monitoring exposure are urgently needed. In a follow-up of a 2016 study in a nanocomposites plant, in which only exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was examined, eight markers of oxidative stress were analyzed in three bodily fluids, i.e. Read More

Zhonghua Lao Dong Wei Sheng Zhi Ye Bing Za Zhi 2020 11;38(11):866-867