Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 7, 2026

A Silicosis Mouse Model Established by Repeated Inhalation of Crystalline Silica Dust
Published on: January 6, 2023
[Acute silicosis. An infrequent pneumoconiosis]
María Martha Méndez-Vargas1, Andrés Eduardo Soto-de la Fuente, Eduardo Andrés Soto-Vera
1Coordinación de Salud en el Trabajo, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Distrito Federal, México. ramazzini.1700@gmail.com.
Background:
Acute Silicosis was first described in 1900 by Betts. It's also denominated as silicoproteinosis. It's an infrequent way of pneumoconiosis which is produced when sandblasting.
Clinical Case:
27 year old male who has been working for four years in a glass shop, etching them through sandblasting. Four years before with dyspnea on exertion rapidly progressing. Coughing spell, emetic and wheezing, with daily hyaline expectoration of 50 cc, yearly weight loss of 44 lbs and intense chest pain. Breathing rates 36X'. He was polypneic, with basal bilateral crackling rales. Thorax X-rays shows Mengeaux Festoon, right lung apex, rounded opacities between 3 and 10 mm in diameter, type 2/2 r/r in the ILO 2000 Classification. Opacities in the left lung flux to mix into a honeycomb shape type B silicoma. Cardiac silhouette frayed and Grade 1 Cardiomegaly. Dies five years after his condition started.
Conclusions:
This kind of operations should be prohibited unless an industrial safety program using a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) is applied.
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