To investigate the local immune response, the cellular infiltrate and cytokine levels were analysed in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from patients with pulmonary paracoccidioidomycosis. The group consisted of 19 patients aged 34-65 yrs. The diagnosis was confirmed by demonstration of the fungus in the sputum or BAL fluid and by serological tests. Cytospin preparations showed an increased number ...

Three cases of stage III pulmonary sarcoidosis are presented. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) revealed normal cell differential counts in the right middle lobe of each patient, but high-intensity lymphocytic alveolitis in the right upper lobe. These findings suggest that BAL should be done in multiple segments of the lung to obtain a truly representative picture of the intensity of the alveolitis ...

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare pulmonary disease. Diagnosis is established by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), which has macroscopic 'milky appearance', and in the presence of typical computed tomography, findings are diagnostic of PAP but, however, the feature of periodic acid-Schiff-positive eosinophilic proteinaceous fluid raises the confidence of the diagnosis. We report late-o...

Pulmonary artery aneurysms, arterial and venous thrombosis, pulmonary infarction, recurrent pneumonia, bronchiolitis obliterans organized pneumonia, and pleurisy are the main features of pulmonary involvement in Behçet's disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the production of B cell-activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF), an important regulator of B-cell survival and immun...

INTRODUCTION The current study has addressed the presence and the cellular origin of microparticles (MP) isolated from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and from blood samples from patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Their prognostic interest was also investigated. METHODS Fifty-two patients were included within the first 24 hours of ARDS. They were compared to spontane...

Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB), transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) of mediastinal lymph nodes and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) are routinely performed at fibreoptic bronchoscopy. Up to the present time, no data have been available on the efficacy of performing all three of these procedures simultaneously in the bronchoscopic work-up of sarcoidosis. A prospective study was undertaken to ...

the use of flow cytometry in the clinical laboratory has grown substantially in the past decade. flow cytometric analysis provides a rapid qualitative and quantitative description of multiple characteristics of individual cells. for example, it is possible to detect the cell size and granularity, aspects of dna and rna content and the presence of cell surface and nuclear markers which are used ...

abstract background: sp-a and sp-d are hydrophilic proteins which regulate the inflammatory response of the lung. pasteurella multocida is one of the most common bacteria isolated from calves suffering from shipping fever pneumonia, one of the most problems in dairy herds. objective: evaluation of surfactant content may provide a valuable diagnostic tool for detection of calf pneumonia due to p...

A marked increase in the number of basophilic cells (BCs) was found in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids from the patients with bronchial asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Histochemical analysis revealed that basophils were the major components of BCs in asthmatic patients, while formalin-insensitive BCs, which are presumed to be connective tissue mast cells, were observed i...

Background and aims Asbestos bodies (AB) in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) can be quantified by light microscopy and their concentration is indicative of past cumulative asbestos exposure. The objective of this retrospective study was to assess clinical and exposure characteristics, as well as possible time trends, among patients in whom AB had been measured in BAL. We also conducted a systematic...