BACKGROUND The epidemiology of respiratory viruses and their potential clinical impact when recovered in lower respiratory specimens has not been established in the hospital setting. A study was performed to investigate the association between positive viral detection and respiratory infection in an at-risk population. METHODS 299 adult patients who underwent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) proc...

BACKGROUND Studies in cystic fibrosis (CF) generally focus on inflammation present in the airway lumen. Little is known about inflammation occurring in the airway wall, the site ultimately destroyed in end-stage disease. OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that inflammatory patterns in the lumen do not reflect those in the airway wall of children with CF. METHODS Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) f...

Annexin I is a 36 kilodalton (kD) calcium-dependent phospholipid-binding protein which may have anti-inflammatory properties. Previous investigations which sampled lower respiratory tract epithelial lining fluid (ELF) via bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) have demonstrated that annexin I can be degraded in inflammatory lung disease. We analyzed BAL fluid from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) to de...

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) remains challenging. Culture and histopathological examination of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid are useful but have suboptimal sensitivity and in the case of culture may require several days for fungal growth to be evident. Detection of Aspergillus DNA in BAL fluid by quantitative PCR (qPCR) offers the potential for earlier...

Increasing knowledge has accumulated relating to the effect of cigarette smoking on cells and other constituents in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. Such knowledge is important for the correct evaluation of BAL results. When BAL records are interpreted, smoking has to be considered as a major confounding factor. In this issue of the Journal, BuRKE et al. [1] add a new aspect to the adverse e...

Objective Fibre-optic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (FOB-BAL) is an important tool for diagnosing and selecting treatment for acutely hypoxaemic patients with diffuse lung infiltrates. However, FOB-BAL carries a risk of significant hypoxaemia and subsequent tracheal intubation during and after the procedure. The application of FOB-BAL using a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in combinatio...

background: serum lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) concentration is an indicator for tissue injury. it may be secreted locally in many conditions. for the first time, this study was performed to investigate the value of ldh level in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (balf) in differentiation of benign from malignant single pulmonary nodules (spns) and to assess its relationship with serum ldh levels.   m...

BACKGROUND Aspergillus fumigatus is a pathogenic fungus which causes a range of diseases, particularly in the human lung. The pathological mechanism is unknown but may involve a complex mixture of biomolecules which can diffuse from the spore surface. This material is known as A fumigatus diffusate (AfD) and has previously been shown to have a range of immunosuppressive functions. It is hypothe...

Oxidative stress in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is considered as an important pathophysiological mechanism in acute impairment of lung function. The present study investigated whether a pulmonary oxidant-antioxidant imbalance is indicated by substantial oxidative modification of proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. Oxidatively modified proteins in BAL fluid, as measure...

Rhinovirus infections are the major cause of asthma exacerbations. We hypothesised that IL-15, a cytokine implicated in innate and acquired antiviral immunity, may be deficient in asthma and important in the pathogenesis of asthma exacerbations. We investigated regulation of IL-15 induction by rhinovirus in human macrophages in vitro, IL-15 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and IL-15...