Bronchopulmonary lavage for removal of inhaled insoluble materials from the lung.

A bronchopulmonary lavage technique utilizing saline washings is described for removing OaZr 95Nb labeled Zr02 microspheres from the left lungs of beagle dogs. As assessed by external counting at 30 days post-exposure, the lungs of groups of dogs not lavaged, and those lavaged on day 0, day 8, day 16, or days 0, 8 and 16 post-exposure, contained 95, 88, 80, 74, and 72 percent of their initial burden, respectively. At sacrifice, 30 days post-exposure, >98 percent of the total radioactivity found in the animals at that time was in the lungs of both the lavaged and confrol dogs.