Anthracosis

Anthracosis is the condition in which carbon particles are found as black pigments in tissues. Carbon is the foremost among the exogenous pigments.

Occurrence

Anthracosis is common in human and animals that live in smoky cities and in persons that work in coal mines.

Carbon particles deposit in lungs and in lymph nodes that drain them and rarely, in other organs if come there by macrophages.

Gross appearance

1.      Moderate to large amount of carbon impart a speckling with black or grey to the lungs. The ventral lobes of the lungs are affected more than the dorsal.

2.      Lymph nodes are blackened.

Microscopic appearance

1.      Carbon particles appear as black minute granules, either between cells or in their cytoplasm.

2.      In lungs, they deposit in alveolar walls and connective tissue septa, usually within macrophages.

3.      In lymph nodes, these are found in between the lymphoid cells, but these are often phagocytized by large mononuclear cells and carried to other organs.

Causes and significance

•      Anthracosis is due to repeated and continued inhalation of coal dust or smoke as a consequence of living in cities.

•      Coal miners are commonly affected and their heavily blackened lungs are called ‘miner’s lung’ and the condition is known ‘black lung disease’.

•      Carbon particles remain in the tissues for life and excessive amount of it may cause pulmonary fibrosis and predispose to lung infections.

•      Pneumoconiosis is the deposition of several kinds of mineral dusts in the lungs. Anthracosis is a form of pneumoconiosis in which dusts are the carbon particles.

•      Some mineral dusts can cause life-threatening pulmonary diseases.