Images in Clinical Medicine

Kim Eagle, M.D., Editor

A Ferruginous Body

Anne Sorling, B.S./C.T. (A.S.C.P.), and Corey J. Langer, M.D.

N Engl J Med 1993; 328:1388May 13, 1993

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Article

Figure 1 A Ferruginous Body.

The classic dumbbell-shaped, sometimes beaded appearance of an asbestos fiber, also known as a ferruginous body, is evident in an iron-mucopolysaccharide matrix on scanning electron microscopy (x1595). The fibers were obtained at the postmortem examination of a 58-year-old man with a history of smoking 100 packs of cigarettes per year and long-term exposure to asbestos who died of secondary interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and stage IV non-small-cell bronchogenic carcinoma.

Kim Eagle, M.D.

Anne Sorling, B.S./C.T. (A.S.C.P.)
Corey J. Langer, M.D.
Department of Medical Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111