Three patients with typical sandblaster's silicosis proven by mineralogical analysis

Abstract

Three family members who had worked as sandblasters in their own sandblasting factory showed innumerable small nodularities in both lung fields of their chest radiograms. One of those showed conglomerate shadows in the upper lung fields. Those shadows seemed to be consistent with those of silicosis. One of the patients was examined by transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) and showed typical silicotic nodules. Mineralogical studies were done on the abrasive particles and the deposited particles in the lung tissue specimen obtained via TBLB and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid sample (BALF) using polarized microscopy, X-ray diffraction and analytical electron microscopy. The particles which had accumulated on the floor of the factory mineralogically consisted of mostly (over 90%) silica quartz containing small amount of chlorite, and the deposited particles in the lung tissue and those in the BALF showed similar composition.