AUTOPSY EVALUATION OF ASBESTOS EXPOSURE - RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF 135 CASES WITH QUANTITATION OF FERRUGINOUS BODIES IN DIGESTED LUNG-TISSUE

In recent years, there has been increased interest in documenting asbe stos exposure. The pathologic sine qua non of asbestos exposure has be en the presence of ''asbestos bodies'' in lung- parenchyma. In this re trospective study of 135 autopsies done to determine asbestos exposure , ferruginous bodies in digested lung tissue were quantitated by a sim plified sodium hypochlorite procedure on fresh or fixed tissue. Of the 131 digested specimens, 26 (20%) showed no ferruginous bodies, 34 (26 %) had <5 ferruginous bodies per slide, 7 (5%) had 5 to 10 ferruginous bodies per slide, and 64 (49%) had >10 ferruginous bodies per slide. Ferruginous bodies were identified in hematoxylin-eosin stained sectio ns of lung tissue in only 41 cases (30%). The digestion method describ ed is a simple, reliable, and inexpensive method to assess ferruginous bodies.