Pleural changes and exposure to fibrous minerals.
本文区分了石棉暴露引起的胸膜斑块、急性胸膜炎和弥漫性胸膜纤维化，指出不同反应预后不同，并对比了芬兰和土耳其暴露人群的差异，强调区分胸膜变化对预后判断有价值。
The pleura is a main target for various reactions related to asbestos exposure. However there are great radiological and clinical differences between the various reactions, and there is also increasing evidence that they have different prognoses. The main reactions are pleural plaques on the one hand and acute pleurisy and diffuse pleural fibrosis on the other. In a population with a low mesothelioma risk, the anthophyllite-exposed population of Northern Karelia in Finland, there are very few reactions of the second type, while plaques are very common. In Turkey, where the exposure is to erionite, the mesothelioma level is extremely high, and reactions of type two are very common in the exposed population. Thus it seems that careful discrimination of the various pleural changes can have prognostic value. There are also indications that plaques do not have any relation to a disturbed immunologic system, while pleurisy and diffuse pleurisy have.