[Morphology of the liver in anthracosilicosis (author's transl)].

Histological sections of the liver taken at the autopsy of 26 patients with anthracosilicosis of different degrees of severity were investigated retrospectively. Single macrophages containing dust were found in the portal fields, as well as dust storing Kupfer cells proliferating centroacinarity. Granuloma of the walls of central and sublobular veins could be observed, containing infiltrates of lymphocytes and plasma cells, proliferating fibroblasts including histiocytes, and fibrosis and hyalinisation in later stages. It may be assumed, that dust pigments are being transported by blood and taken up by Kupler cells in the first line, to be transmitted directly to the central vein and to a lesser degree by way of lymph drainage into the portal mesenchyma in a later stage. These morphological changes of the liver apparently did not cause any clinical symptoms; they could be found in a high percentage of all patients, which did not have cirrhosis of the liver, and they could be found in all degrees of severity of anthracosilicosis. Thus liver biopsy will yield valuable diagnostic results in this granulomatous disease of the liver as well.