blood. Similar results in the pleural fluid have been reported by Groman et al;i however, in this report BAL cell analysis was not available. In our patients, the lymphocyte profile found in pkural effusion was closer to that seen in BAL. Lymphocyte subpopulation findings in the pleural fluid seem to be representative ofthe pleural histologic involvement, as BAL is of alveolitis. By contrast, i...

The development of 2,3-dimercaptopropanol (British Anti-Lewisite, BAL) by Peters, Stocken, and Thompson (1) has made available a potent antidote for arsenical poisoning. Study of the chemical combination of arsenic with sensitive enzymes and cells indicated that the arsenic could, under certain circumstances, be removed from the cells, and that enzymes could be reactivated by the action of BAL ...

BACKGROUND We evaluated the diagnostic performance and safety of combined blind nasotracheal suctioning and non-bronchoscopic mini-bronchoalveolar lavage (mini-BAL) to obtain respiratory secretion specimens from spontaneously breathing, non-intubated patients with infectious pneumonia in intensive care. METHODS Patients suspected of having infectious pneumonia were included prospectively. Thr...

BACKGROUND It has been proven that cytokeratins (CKs) are useful tumor markers for the follow-up, treatment monitoring and prognosis evaluation of lung cancer and among these, tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) plays an important role. Nevertheless, only a small number of studies have been reported about their diagnostic capacity. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) can be divided into two fractions: br...

We examine the UV and X-ray properties of 256 radio-quiet SDSS quasars (QSOs) observed in X-rays with Chandra and/or XMM-Newton in order to study the relationship between QSOs with broad C IV absorption lines (BALs; width > 2000 km s) and those with C IV mini-BALs (here defined to have widths of 1000–2000 km s). Our sample includes 42 BAL and 48 mini-BAL QSOs. The relative X-ray brightness and ...

BACKGROUND Macrophages have been implicated in the pathogenesis of COPD. M1 and M2 macrophages constitute subpopulations displaying pro- and anti-inflammatory properties. We hypothesized that smoking cessation affects macrophage heterogeneity in the lung of patients with COPD. Our aim was to study macrophage heterogeneity using the M2-marker CD163 and selected pro- and anti-inflammatory mediato...

BACKGROUND Nonendoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a practical alternative for a deep nasopharyngeal swab (DNS) to sample the airways of a large number of calves in a short period of time. The extent of commensal overgrowth and agreement of BAL with DNS culture results in preweaned calves are unknown. OBJECTIVES To compare commensal overgrowth and bacterial culture results between DNS a...

In chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP), histopathological evidence exists for the degranulation of eosinophils and the release of various toxic proteins. In vitro studies have demonstrated the degranulation of eosinophils in response to aggregated and complexed immunoglobulins. The aims of this study were to investigate: 1) whether the eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and immunoglobulin (Ig) ...

BACKGROUND Broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) is an invasive bedside procedure to define type and concentration of pathologic organisms causing ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). We evaluated if the absence of pathogens on final results represented a lavage aspect of the BAL as a therapeutic procedure to eliminate organisms. METHODS BAL results collected from 2008 to 2009 were stratified as po...

Background: Pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is commonly used to help diagnose and characterize pneumonia in these patients. Mini-BAL is a lessinvasive, less-costly and less-cumbersome diagnostic tool than BAL. Objectives: In this study, we compared the diagnostic value of BAL and mini-BAL in the evaluation of pneu...