Radiology in asbestos workers

Our plain-English summary of Radiology in asbestos workers, by B. Gandevia (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1985).

The study

• Author: B. Gandevia
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1985;142(7):424
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001251).

In plain English

This item was a letter to the editor, not a research study. The author described a survey organized by Dr John Gilson for the Asbestos International Association. Copied sets of 100 chest films of workers exposed to asbestos were sent to experts from 12 countries to assess how comparably they read them and to highlight problems with the ILO Classification. The letter gave no survey results, saying only that interim papers had been presented in Europe in 1984 and 1985 and that a review was being prepared. One set of films was kept by the author for teaching. The author argued that "asbestosis" should be limited to diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis attributable to asbestos inhalation, which cannot be judged from X-rays alone, at least without the advanced cases of earlier years. In the author's view it should not be used for pleural plaques or diffuse pleural thickening. The author wrote that pleural plaques signify, for practical purposes, significant asbestos exposure. The author also wrote of seeing more people disabled by adverse labels than by pulmonary asbestosis.

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: letter to the editor (opinion and description of an international film-reading survey; no data reported)
• Who was studied: A survey of 100 chest films of workers exposed to asbestos, read by experts from 12 countries; organized by Dr John Gilson on behalf of the Asbestos International Association
• Exposure: asbestos exposure in workers (no fiber type or job specified)
• Main results:
  • The letter reported no results from the film-reading survey. It stated that interim papers had been presented to international conferences in Europe in 1984 and 1985 and that a review for journal publication was in preparation.
  • The author stated that whether asbestos-related diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis is present cannot be inferred solely from radiographic appearances, at least in the absence of the advanced cases of earlier years.
  • The author stated that, in cases with diffuse bilateral pleural thickening, whether lung (parenchymal) disease is present is subject to gross observer variation on radiographic findings.
  • The author reported, from personal clinical experience, having seen more subjects disabled by iatrogenic disease resulting from adverse labels than by pulmonary asbestosis.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that "asbestosis" should be restricted to diffuse interstitial pulmonary fibrosis attributable to asbestos inhalation, and should not be used for pleural plaques or diffuse pleural thickening. In the author's view, pleural plaques signify, for practical purposes, only significant asbestos exposure. The author said these benign pleural conditions should be called asbestos-related disorders rather than a disease, and that workers with benign pleural lesions deserve reassurance.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

Related studies

• Radiology of asbestosis — A. Solomon (1970)
• The radiology of malignant pleural mesothelioma in Western Australia — S.L. Langlois, J.J. Glancy, et al. (1978)
• Nonexpandable Lung: More Than Just a Call from Radiology — D. Feller-Kopman (2019)
• Radiology-pathology conference: primary peritoneal mesothelioma — A.S. Baadh, X. Xiong, et al. (2013)
• Notes from the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Korean Society of Thoracic Radiology: asbestos-related thoracic diseases — J.S. Kim, J.G. Yi, et al. (2013)
• Circulating rheumatoid and antinuclear factors in asbestos workers — M. Turner-Warwick, W.R. Parkes (1970)

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