The aim of our study was to search the eventual presence of asbestos fibers in the neoplastic tissue of 13 cases of bladder carcinoma and in the normal vesical tissue of 12 control cases without neoplasia and operated upon for other urologic pathologies. To all patients a standardised questionnaire has been administered in order to ascertain the entity of the eventual exposition to asbestos. The organic component of the tissues has been oxidated at low temperature in atomic oxygen plasma and the residual inorganic component has been analysed by transmission electronic microscopy and energy dispersion spectrometry. We have found asbestos fibers only in two over the 25 examined samples; in both cases they belonged to patients affected by the neoplasia and in one of them also by pulmonary asbestos. The procedures that we used in this study, in respect to our other experiences, allowed us to reduce the risk of contamination of the tissues by asbestos, as it is shown by the lower number of cases with positive finding of fibers and by lower concentration of fibers in the positive cases.

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[Asbestos fiber count in extra-pulmonary tissues].

Most autoptic tissues of three men (two with pulmonary asbestosis and one without any exposure to asbestos) were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersion spectrometry for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of asbestos fibers. Preliminary results indicate that only in cases with occupational exposure were found asbestos fibers (in lung, pleura , bladder, kidney and liver). These results allow interesting speculations on some environmental pathogenetic questions and deserve further investigations.

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