What is Mesothelioma?

What is Mesothelioma? It is a Mesothelioma diffuse malignant tumor that comes from long exposure to asbestos. It can affect the pleura, the peritoneum and the pericardium, being the pleural localization more frequent, for the peritoneal one requires a longer exposition to this mineral.

It is true. Most Mesotheliomas come from the exposition to the asbestos, which occur in workplaces that do not even take the minimum security measures in an 80-85 %. It seems to be a dosage-response relation: a minimal dosage of exposition to asbestos is enough for producing the disease in very low levels and it can also appear in a latent way, sometimes for more than ten years.

pleural Mesothelioma is associated with asbestosis in a 25 % is frequently joined with pleural spill, dyspnoea, thorax pain and pleural enlargement. From a radiologic point of view, it initially shows with images similar to pleural plaques. After some time, images with irregular shadows and sharp outline can appear.

The presence of hyaluronic acid into the pleural liquid can confirm the diagnosis, despite the fact that it is a low sensitivity and specificity test. The etiologic diagnosis is based in the recount of fibers. In their absence, the story of the previous exposition is enough to determine the causal relation. 

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