Professional paper
Benign asbestos pleural effusion
S. Kovač
; Institut za medicinska istraživanja i medicinu rada, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Z. Car
; Klinička bolnica za plućne bolesti »Jordnovac«, Zagreb, Hrvatska
A. Petrak
; Klinička bolnica za plućne bolesti »Jordnovac«, Zagreb, Hrvatska
T. Beritić
; Institut za medicinska istraživanja i medicinu rada, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Despite an ever-increasing incidence of pleural and pulmonary asbestosis the number of cases of benign asbestos pleural effusion reported to date has been small. This is due primarily to the fact that the causal relationship between asbestos exposure and pleural effusion has not been widely recognized and thus the aetiology of a few cases of »banal« effusion may remain obscure, particularly when other signs of pleuro-pulmonary asbestosis are lacking. On the other hand, due to the sparsity of symptoms in small effusions this manifestation of asbestosis may be very easily overlooked. However, a benign pleural effusion, contrary to a malignant one, is considered to be one of the earliest clinical effects of asbestosis appearing 10 years or less after the beginning of continuous or even intermittent exposure, and in younger age groups. Out of five patients with benign asbestos effusion reported here, two were less than 35 years of age, two were 40 years and only one was 48. They were all dockyard workers: three of them were ship-fitters, one an insulator and one a welder. Interstitial parenchymal fibrosis developed in four of them: in one it was found simultaneously, in three it followed later (3, 10 and 16 years later), and in one it did not appear during the follow-up period (5 years) at all. As far as the authors have been able to ascertain, this is the first case study of benign asbestos pleural effusion in Yugoslavia.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
156847
URI
Publication date:
9.9.1985.
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