INTRODUCTION Mutiple mieloma (MM) cells are rarely found in extramedullary sites. The sites of extramedullary dissemination reported in the literature are spleen, liver, lymph nodes, kidneys, thyroid gland, adrenal gland, ovary, tests, lung, pleura, pericardium, intestinal tract and skin. We report a case in which the myeloma was diagnosed after we discovered the presence of monoclonal plasma c...

A chronic spastic myelopathy associated with HTLV-I infection (HTLV-I-associated myelopathy: HAM) shows subclinical pulmonary involvement with bronchoalveolar T lymphocytosis. In the present study, we investigated 18 patients with HAM: five HTLV-I carriers without myelopathy and 13 normal control subjects seronegative for HTLV-I to determine if soluble IL-2 receptors (IL-2R), a marker of lympho...

Bronchcalveolar lavage procollagen-/11-peptide in recent onset hypersensitivity pneumonitis: co"elation with extracellular matrix components. H. Teschler, A.B. Thompson, W.R. Pohl, N. Konietz}co, S.l. Rennard, U. Costabel. ©ERS Journtlls Ltd 1993. ABSTRACT: Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is characterized by the accumulation of inflammatory cells in the lung parenchyma, and may progress to fi...

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) provides an important diagnostic tool that can facilitate the diagnosis of various diffuse lung diseases. BAL fluid can be analyzed to determine white blood cell (WBC) profiles and to detect respiratory pathogens. Although BAL is seldom useful as a "stand-alone" diagnostic test for the diagnosis of diffuse infiltrative lung disease, when combined with clinical data ...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical role of bronchoscopic and nonbronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in the diagnosis of infectious and interstitial lung disease in children. BAL was performed using three 1 mL.kg-1 aliquots of normal saline, with the flexible bronchoscope (Olympus 3.6 or 4.8 mm) wedged in a segmental or subsegmental bronchus of the lobe that showed ...

Optimization of intratracheal instillation is necessary to establish an ideal animal model of acute lung injury (ALI) in order to further reveal the cellular and molecular pathogenesis of ALI. It is possible that instilling air from a prefilled syringe may promote the delivery of reagents into the alveolar spaces, resulting in different pulmonary responses. In the present study, the influence o...

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid cells count provides information about presence or absence of interstitial lung diseases. BAL fluid samples were taken from 50 patients hospitalized in University Hospital for Lung Diseases "Jordanovac" in Zagreb, Croatia. The samples of BAL fluid were prepared by cytocentrifuge. From each sample two cytospin were selected (C1 and C2) and after determing adequ...

BACKGROUND Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and CMV disease are frequent complications in immunocompromised patients. In this study, the incidence of pulmonary CMV infection was analyzed in different groups of immunocompromised patients and the diagnostic value of immunostaining with anti-CMV antibodies in BAL cells was evaluated in regard to the diagnosis of CMV pneumonitis. METHODS Five hund...

OBJECTIVES We established a Wistar rat model of asthma caused by toluene diisocyanate (TDI) exposure, and investigated the relationship between TDI exposure concentrations and respiratory hypersensitivity, airway inflammation, and cytokine secretions in animals, to better understand the mechanism of TDI induced occupational asthma. METHODS Wistar rats were exposed to two different concentrati...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological evidence has implicated fine particulate air pollution, particularly particles less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10), in the development of exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) although the mechanism is unknown. The hypothesis that PM10 particles induce oxidant stress, causing inflammation and injury to airway epithelium, was test...