• T Kishimoto, H Yamamoto, K Morinaga, Y Yamawaki, T Yoshimoto, T Miyashita, N Kohyama, and Y Shinohara.
• Department of Occupational Pulmonary Disease, Okayama Rousai Hospital, Japan.
• Ind Health. 1999 Oct 1;37(4):432-9.

AbstractAn agalmatolite miner and processor showed large shadows at the bilateral hila accompanied by surrounding emphysematous changes and irregular shadows on chest X-ray films. Chest CT scans were characterized by a mixture of tiny irregular structures and small round opacities. Histopathological examination revealed massive fibrosis, which corresponded to large shadows, but only a small number of typical silicotic nodules, indicating mixed dust pneumoconiosis. Mineralogical examination of the autopsy lungs showed quartz, pyrophyllite, mica, and kaolinite. Quartz accounted for 70% of the amount of all mineral dust in both patients, but pyrophyllite accounted for 10.8% and 14.4%. The pulmonary mineral dust composition in the two patients was well consistent with the mineral composition of the raw clays in the agalmatolite mine. In the two patients, chest X-ray findings and histopathological findings of the lungs also suggested agalmatolite pneumoconiosis, which was confirmed by mineral analysis of the lungs.

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