Clinical features, mortality and survival of patients with asbestosis

This paper describes the characteristic clinical features, mortality and survival rate of 202 patients diagnosed as having asbestosis by the Institute of Occupational Health between 1934 and 1976. One hundred and thirty-three patients were subjected to a clinical reexamination. Major findings included breathlessness in 118 (88.7%), persistent sputum in 95 (71.4%), crepitations in 77 (58.0%) and finger clubbing in 43 (32.3%). Of the 95 patients with persistent sputum, 19 (20.0%) were nonsmokers. Of the 174 men registered as having asbestosis, 56 had died, whereas the expected number of deaths among men of the same age in the Finnish general population was only 23.4. The respective figures for lung cancer were 19 observed and 2.1 expected. No excess mortality was found for other malignomas. Among men with asbestosis, the life expectancy was shorter for smokers than for non- and exsmokers.