The incidence of asbestos bodies in the autopsied or resected lungs of tuberculosis patients aged 20 to 59 was investigated by the melting or squeexing methods. Using the melting method on 5g lung tissue specimens, asbestos bodies were found in 4 out of 40 cases (10.0%) from 1937 to 1941, 9 out of 50 cases (18.0%) from 1947 to 1951, 70 out of 101 (69.3%) from 1958 to 1961 and 71 of 95 (74.7%) from 1970 to 1973. Marked increase began around 1950 and the rates roughly reflected the increase in annual amount of asbestos imports to Japan, which also began to increase steeply around 1950.
The incidence was much lower when the squeezing method was employed of when the melting method was used, even though adjacent portions of the same lung were used for methodological comparative tests.
For epidemiological surveys of lung asbestos pollution, sputa of 100 hospitalized respiratory disease patients of various occupations, and 58 healthy police motorcyclists were examined. Tests revealed no asbestos in the sputa of nonasbestos workers, whereas 10 out of 35 (28.8%) asbestos workers in Osaka proved to have asbestos bodies in their sputa, indicating necessity of another sensitive method for the purpose.

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Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (AT-converting enzyme) activity was measured in 30 patients with sarcoidosis in relation to their chest X-ray findings. Thirty patients with a diagnosis f sarcoiodosis, including 16 males and 14 females, ranged in age from 14 to 61 years. Sixteen patients were untreated and 14 patients were undergoing treatment.
Assay was performed using hippuryl-Histidyl-Leucine as substrate. The activity was expressed as nmol/ml/min of liberated hippuric acid.
The activity of this enzyme in normal subjects was 15±0.9nmol/ml/min. Serum AT-converting enzyme activity was significantly increased in patients with a sarcoidosis lesion in chest X-ray findings. The enzyme activity in untreated sarcoidosis patients was significantly higher than in normal subjects (38±2.3nmol/ml/min). As the chest X-ray findings improved, serum AT-converting enzyme activity became lower. The activities of the enzyme before and after improvement of the chest X-ray findings were as follows; 40.0±4.2nmol/ml/min and 27.8±1.8nmol/ml/min, respectively. Many patients showed higher activity of the enzyme than that in normal subjects even after improvement of chest X-ray. In cases of relapse, serum AT-converting enzyme activity increased again. The enzyme activity was decreased as the X-ray findings improved, with or without steroid treatment. It was concluded that the enzyme activity in patients had a more intimate relationship to the chest X-ray findings than to the administration of the steroids or other drugs. Though the mechanism of the elevation of this enzyme activity in sarcoidosis is not clear, the assay of the enzyme may be very useful for predicion of the course of this disease.

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A case of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, 19-year-old male, is presented. He had atopic type asthma in his past history. The chest X-ray film revealed nodular and macular shadows in the right middle field. Eosinophil counts in peripheral blood were 833/mm³. The diagnosis was established by a prick test with an aspergillus extract, its gave an immediate reaction and a late reaction developed after two and half hours. By corticosteroid treatment the shadows disappeared within several days. The bronchogram conducted after the treatment, showed the characteristic pattern of bronchiectasis (saccular type) associated with allergic aspergillosis.

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