Document Y9VEm5YDzZG8r6D6VkBVjLaLE

Industrial Hygiene Digest - 22 .5 May, 1953 i asbestosis, and nodular silicosis. In aijiposis which is represented by reti-ill culation.identification is more difficult^ tyut ft is still pqssible in the hands of^` an expert. The identification of mild or mqderate asbestosis is still more ,"i difficult. Only a great deal of.experience which is integrated with a knowledge! of concentrations and exposures of the dust involved makes possible an inteU ;r ligent interpretation of such films. %- Biol. Absts. ;v*- W- 497 Does Silicosis Affect the Silica Content of Human Blood? G. Worth and G. Campen. Z. physiol. Chem- (ffqpp.e-geyler'a) 288, 155-164 (1951), Germt; The authors determined the silica content of blood of 264 persons, ;|r- half of whom were coal miners with various stages of silicosis, using the molyl- denum blue technique.' The mean result for the whole group was 8.3. + .2.4 - micrograms silica per ml. of blood. Neither sex, different kinds of inflammli* tory or other diseases, nor silicosis caused any difference in the silica contest of the blood. Tests were also made after ingestion of organic silicon compound Here a rapid rise of silica content qf bipod and urine was found, but the blood ?; silica had dropped to its normal value after 9 hours. The bearing of these had* ings on the silica solubility theory is discussed. If the theory is to be main- tained, it must be assumed that the amounts dissolved are too small to. be dear strated in the blood or that excretion through the kidneys is too rapid. -- Cond, from Bull. Hyg. % ' 'S 498 Silicotic and Tuberculosilicotic Lesions Simulating Carcinoma. F G. Kej J. Thoracic Surg. 24, 545-567 (Qec l^BE). The appearance of unilateral; tnassive densities in the.lungs of eigl men between the ages of 49 and 69 with chrohic pneumoftitia has been reporl In each of these patients clinical and radiographic evidence strongly suggest broncKiogenic carcinoma. Five of the eight patients had prolonged exposure J to silica-containing dust in various occupations. Five patients were treated pneumonectomy, one by lobectomy, and dne by thoractomy and biopsies were|,, made. The fundamental feature of the pathological process in this group of patients was complete or partial bronchial obstruction by pressure, of lymph nodes, which were the site of a chronic inflammatory reaction secondary to inhalation of silica-containing dust, five patients the chronic obstructive pneumonitis was non-specific, and in three thei/e was an added tuberculous infection. It is suggested that this condition be called bchronic silicotic lymph** dentis with obstructive pneumonitis (nontub^rculous or tuberculous). The ? patients are all alive; the six patients treated by excision have been relieved of their complaints. --.Cond. from J. Am., Med. Assn.