Asbestos bodies in the sputum of asbestos workers: correlation with occupational exposure

Abstract

A cross-sectional medical survey including collection of three consecutive sputum samples was carried out among 270 retired workers of a textile and friction materials factory, in order to investigate the relationship between asbestos body identification and asbestos exposure.The individual cumulative asbestos exposure, determined by means of a plant-specific job-exposure matrix based on asbestos air measurements in the workshops, proved to be heavy with a mean cumulative exposure of 217 fibres?mL -1 6yr. Macrophages and asbestos bodies were identified in sputum samples by light microscopy.The lung origin of the sputum, suggested by the presence of macrophages and/or asbestos bodies, was confirmed in 82.6% of subjects, and 53% of these samples were positive for asbestos bodies. The prevalence of asbestos bodies was not related to sex, smoking status or latency. Conversely, multivariate analysis showed a positive relationship with cumulative exposure, duration and intensity of exposure to asbestos, as well as age and time since retirement.These findings suggest that sputum analysis for asbestos bodies may remain a relevant and noninvasive marker of heavy occupational exposure to asbestos, even years after retirement. Owing to the new perspectives in lung cancer screening, it might contribute to the identification of high-risk subjects.

Pleural plaques and asbestosis: dose– and time–response relationships based on HRCT data

“…The current results are consistent with the hypothesis that cumulative exposure is more important than TSFE for the development of asbestosis [4], as no significant relationship was observed for TSFE in adjusted models. These results are in accordance with biological data on retention of asbestos [24]. However, although significant correlations were observed between CEI (or level of exposure) and asbestosis, these correlations appeared to be weak.…”

Asbestos‐related pleural diseases: Dimensional criteria are not appropriate to differentiate diffuse pleural thickening from pleural plaques

“…A cumulative exposure index, expressed in fibers/ ml  years was therefore calculated for each subject by determining the sum of the products [exposure  duration] characterizing each job position, as previously described [Paris et al, 2002].…”

Induced sputum in occupational lung diseases

“…However, a sputum sample positive for asbestos bodies is suggestive of a high lung asbestos burden, since a correlation has only been found in workers with high levels of exposure [20,21]. Although another group of investigators found agreement of asbestos body detection in only 56.8% of their cases, they concluded that the two methods (BAL+IS) were complementary, since both are useful in increasing the probability of detection [22].…”