A Radiological Study of the Relationship between Tuberculosis and Pneumokoniosis in Coal Miners

The purpose of this investigation was to study the relationship between the lesions produced in the lung by tuberculous infection on the one hand and coal dust inhalation on the other, by the scrutiny of a large number of chest radiographs of coal miners. Previous investigations into the relationship between tuberculosis and coal miner's pneumokoniosis have been summarized by Hart and Aslett (1942). These investiga-tions were all either post-mortem studies, clinical studies, or reviews of compensation and mortality statistics. From them the general conclusion was drawn that coal miners with pneumokoniosis had a tendency to develop tuberculosis as a compli-cating infection, often in a modified form, so that it was not easy to recognize clinically and might even be difficult to determine at necropsy. Mortality statistics confirmed the classical view that there was a low respiratory tuberculosis mortality among miners in general and among bituminous miners in particular, but suggested that the view must be modified for anthracite miners in whom more recent figures had shown an increased tuberculous mortality. Hart and Aslett put forward the