[Comparison of the effects of organic dusts on respiratory organs of rats using a morphometric method]

The contributors studied changes in the respiratory organs in rats induced by lucerne, maize, cotton, flax and flour dusts. The dusts were administered intratracheally by 10 mg dosages. Histological studies of the lung parenchyma were performed in 3 months, which revealed granuloma formations caused by the dusts. Automized planimetry was used to measure the surfaces, both individual and total, of the granuloma formations. To this criterion, cotton dust proved most affective (2.423 +/- 0.772), followed by lucerne (1.739 +/- 0.694), maize (1.434 +/- 0.558), flax (1.420 +/- 0.329), and flour (0.565 +/- 0.171) dusts.