Relation between progressive massive fibrosis, emphysema, and pulmonary dysfunction in coalworkers' pneumoconiosis.

The correlations between progressive massive fibrosis (PMF), emphysema, and impairment of ventilation were studied in 108 dead coalminers, all of whom had suffered with complicated coalworkers' pneumoconiosis (radiological category B or C) during life. The findings indicated that both factors were contributing to impairment of ventilation in proportion to their size or extent, but these contributions were in the main independent of one another. A joint opinion on the types of emphysema found to be present in a random 50 out of the 108 cases was given by two pulmonary pathologists. They found that most of the emphysema was of the centrilobular variety, which appeared to be unrelated to the PMF. The distribution of the PMF throughout the lungs both radiologically and anatomically is shown.