J-M Memo on the Gaensler Case Record in the New England Journal of Medicine (1982)

This document is a Johns-Manville internal memo dated August 20, 1982, with an attached New England Journal of Medicine case record from July 8, 1982 (Case 27-1982, Massachusetts General Hospital). The case record describes one patient. A 64-year-old man had worked six months refitting ships in a shipyard during World War II and later in the upholstery business. Scans showed nodular thickening of the lining of his right lung and a small pleural plaque on the left. He had a 20-year history of rheumatoid arthritis. Before surgery, the invited discussant, Dr. Edward A. Gaensler, favored malignant mesothelioma but also listed benign asbestos effusion and rheumatoid effusion. At surgery, fluid was found. The pleural cells showed no features of a malignant tumor. The lung sample contained numerous asbestos bodies. The final diagnoses were pleural inflammation and scarring, probably rheumatoid, and lung scarring with asbestos bodies consistent with asbestosis. The discussants stated that asbestos had not been proved to cause the pleural disease and that the biopsy did not settle whether asbestos or rheumatoid disease caused the effusion.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It is a copy from J-M's medical library.

We publish this piece for research and commentary: it shows what the medical literature in a leading asbestos company's own library said on the subject, and when. Our summary above is our own reading of it. The copyright stays with the publisher.