Testing for asbestos in paraffin?

[SLUsagar]

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adult male with clinical IPF, wedge resection confirms UIP-pattern lung injury. STRONG reported history of asbestos exposure.
anyone know a place I can send out tissue block for testing? I vaguely recall some place that did tissue digestion with EM or something. (obviously tried iron stain to highlight the buggers, neg of course).

 

[caffeinegirl]

I know the Durham VAMC does electron microscopy for asbestos fibers (microprobe analysis). Dr. Roggli from Duke used to interpret those studies.

Cleveland Clinic also performs the test, it's under the neuropathology heading
http://www.clevelandcliniclabs.com/AnatomicPathology/tabid/4158/Default.aspx

 

[KCShaw]

I hear people talk about this a LOT more than I've heard of it actually being done. Of what I read, though, there are "rare" cases in which asbestos bodies can't be identified but asbestos fibers can. Maybe you've got one. (Or maybe you're chasing your tail, heh.) I'm not aware that quanting fibers is possible in paraffin embedded tissue, beyond usual histologic methods for bodies, but I haven't tried to get it done either.

These days it seems to be easier to litigate in the presence of a strong exposure history, clinical findings, radiology, etc., regardless or in the absence of histology, though I'm no lawyer and the above is anecdotal at best. Beyond those obvious concerns, and the academic interest, would this be treated any differently whether or not you're ultimately able to find asbestos fibers?

(BTW, let us know how it turns out?)

 

[Circumflex]

I'm not sure if the AFIP is taking any outside consults, but there is someone in the Environmental Pathology section that specializes in using different techniques such as Raman spectroscopy to identify inorganic compounds in tissue sections. You may try contacting him anyway (forgot his name).

 

[yaah]

Do you still have wet tissue? Save it and don't let the gross room throw it away. It can probably be extracted easier from that tissue than from the block.