Pleural thickening is damage and thickening of the wall between your lung and your rib-cage. This is more serious than pleural plaques as it can cause pain and breathlessness because the lung has difficulty in expanding. This can reduced your quality of life. There is no cure for pleural thickening.
You are normally at around a 1 - 5% risk of developing a further asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma.
It can take around 10 - 20 years from when you were first exposed to asbestos until pleural thickening is first detected on a chest x-ray.
There are other conditions which can mimic pleural thickening such as rib fractures and plerual bleeding, tuberculosis and pneumonia with empyema (pus in the pleura) and rheumatoid disease.
