The diagnosis of disseminated toxoplasmosis in a 14-year-old allogeneic bone marrow recipient with graft-versus-host disease was determined by the detection of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites in sputum smears. Sputum analysis is a valuable alternative in the clinical assessment of pulmonary toxoplasmosis, especially when conventional invasive techniques are not practicable.

We consider that iu the majority of cases, bloody sputum or hemoptysis in nonmalignant diiases is derived from the broncbial circulatory system. Selective bronchial arteriographic examination was performed in 122 pfitients with benign pulmonary diseases. In the markedly hypervascular group, the patients who bad blood in sputum were significantly lrvger in number than those of moderate or mild p...

A 69 year old non-smoking male attended the surgery giving a one week history of a cough productive of green sputum. He was diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia, issued an antibiotic, and advised to return if he was not improving in four weeks. Four weeks later, he had ongoing sputum production. A full blood picture revealed the following: 1. What is the most significant abnormality? 2. ...

The Research Institute for Diagnosis and Treatment of Early Lung Cancer (RIDTELC) Lung Study was initiated to determine whether lung cancer screening by automated sputum cytometry combined with conventional sputum cytology and auto-fluorescence in addition to white light bronchoscopy could enhance the detection rate of early lung cancer. The present study analyses the initial findings to evalua...

Excessive salivary contamination of induced sputum samples prevents the satisfactory examination of lower airway inflammation. The effects of salivary contamination on different sputum fluid phase measures and the levels of salivary contamination preventing analysis are not defined. The present study sought to examine this by investigating the effect of increasing salivary contamination on indu...

Methods for the quantitation of leucocytes, squamous epithelial cells, and potential pathogens in sputa are described. Microscopic examination showed that 58% of sputa tested (554/957) were purulent or moderately purulent and 48% were moderately or heavily contaminated by squamous epithelial cells. The presence of squamous epithelial cells indicated oropharyngeal contamination. A simple dilutio...

OBJECTIVE To assess the number of sputum specimens necessary for a reliable diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a pastoralist population in Ethiopia. METHOD Using routine data from Ethiopia, where three sputum specimens are currently recommended for the diagnosis of PTB, we documented, (i) the proportion of persons with suspected, PTB who submitted a first, second and third sputum sp...

Promoter hypermethylation of the p16INK4a gene was investigated in 111 cases of tumor tissue, as well as in 136 circulating plasma and 95 sputum samples from Chinese patients with primary lung cancer, using a modified protocol of semi-nested methylation-specific-PCR (MSP). The results showed hypermethylated p16 sequence in 80.2% of tumor tissues and frequencies of 75.7 and 74.7% in plasma and s...