ASBESTOSIS AND CRYPTOGENIC FIBROSING ALVEOLITIS: A RADIOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON

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Abstract
The relationship between lung function and radiological abnormality was compared in 46 subjects with asbestosis and 38 subjects with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis. Radiographs were graded separately by 2 observers according to the 1980 International Labor Organization criteria for classification of the pneumoconioses. The correlation between the transfer factor of the lungs and the radiographic profusion of small parenchymal opacities was found to be greater in subjects with asbestosis than in subjects with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis. At any level of radiological profusion transfer factor was higher in cases with asbestosis than in cases with fibrosing alveolitis. As pleural thickening was seen commonly in asbestosis and may influence lung volumes and the ratio of transfer factor to effective alveolar volume, the results of these measurements were compared only in the cases showing absent or minimal pleural thickening. Both of these variables were higher in the subjects with asbestosis. Despite pathological, functional asnd radiographic similarities, lung function for a given degree of radiographic parenchymal abnormality is better in subjects with absectosis than in subjects with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis. Changes in the plain chest X-ray appearances in asbestosis correlate more closely with the results of lung function tests.