RESEARCH ARTICLE


Asbestos Bodies Burden in the Autopsy Lung Tissue from General Thai Population



Pimpin Incharoen1, *, Tuanseeta Hama1, Lalida Arsa1, Kaettipong Kamprerasart1, Sompong Wongwichai1, Somchai Bovornkitti2
1 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
2 The Academy of Science, The Royal Society of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
0
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 6682
Abstract HTML Views: 1655
PDF Downloads: 825
ePub Downloads: 667
Total Views/Downloads: 9829
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 2265
Abstract HTML Views: 785
PDF Downloads: 519
ePub Downloads: 411
Total Views/Downloads: 3980



Creative Commons License
© 2019 Incharoen et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand; Email: pimpin.inc@mahidol.ac.th


Abstract

Background:

Chrysotile asbestos has been used in Thailand for over 30 years mainly in asbestos-cement wall and roof tiles. In non-exposed subject, asbestos fiber can contaminate in ambient indoor and outdoor environments.

Objective:

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the current prevalence and volume of AB load in general Thai population.

Methods:

Lung tissues were obtained from 200 autopsy cases. Asbestos Bodies (AB) were identified with light microscopy using the tissue digestion and membrane filtration method. Results are reported as AB/g wet lung tissue.

Results:

AB was identified in 97(48.5%) out of 200 cases. The AB level ranged from 0.19-14.4 AB/g wet lung. Most of the positive cases (99%) have less than 10 AB/g wet lung. Only one case exhibited a high value at 14.4 AB/g wet lung. Age, gender, occupation and hometown were found to have no effect on AB burden in autopsy lung tissue from this study.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of AB in autopsy lung tissue from general Thai population is 48.5% and the AB level ranges from 0-14.4 AB/g wet lung in consistent with non-occupational asbestos exposure level regarding several reference reports.

Keywords: Asbestos bodies, Autopsy lung, Tissue digestion, Membrane filtration, Asbestos-cement wall, Amphibole asbestos, Respiratory diseases.