Anthracosis

Coalworkers:

Anthracosis is pigmentation caused by accumulation of amorphous carbon (soot). Carbon does not cause fiber production, but it tends to storein fibrosis deposits (eg tuberculous deposits) - so-called induratio nigra.

The anthracotic pigment is deposited:


 * in the lungs - in dust cells in the alveoli and in the interstitium along the lymph nodes;
 * in the pleura ;
 * in hilar nodes.

These can become impassable for the lymph, which seeks new pathways, often upstream (retrogradely), and pigmentation can also occur in the abdominal nodes.

Macroscopically, anthracotic pigmentation takes the form of a network on the surface of the lungs (the pigment is visible in the connective tissue at the boundary of the lung lobes). In places where the ribs rest on the lungs, the pigmentation is less pronounced or absent.

A special case is the combination of anthracosis with silicosis ( anthracosilicosis ) when contamination of the lungs with coal dust which contains in addition to carbon particle, also silicates - the so-called disease of coal miners or Coalworker`s pneumoconiosis.

Related articles

 * Pneumokoniózy
 * Uhlokopská pneumokonióza
 * Pigment
 * Silikóza
 * Azbestóza

Source

 * PASTOR, Jan. Langenbeck´s medical web page [online]. ©2005. [cit. 2011-03-26]. .