Prevalence of "Asbestos" Bodies in Human Lungs at Necropsy

¹ Department of Pathology, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Scrapings and sections of lungs and hilar lymph nodes from 100 necropsies of residents of the state of Michigan were examined for "asbestos" bodies. Lungs from 18 cases, and hilar lymph nodes from four cases yielded positive findings. In one case in which the lung scrapings were negative, the scrapings of hilar lymph node were positive. In only four of the 19 positive cases were "asbestos" bodies seen in the sections of lung tissue. The lung scrape technique achieves maximum positive results in the detection of "asbestos" bodies when upper and lower lobes of both lungs are scraped. Upper and lower lobes of lungs can be expected to yield about the same number of "asbestos" bodies. None of the subjects had manifested pulmonary asbestosis during life. Their occupational and environmental histories were quite varied; in general, they did not point to a history of exposure to asbestos.