Value of bronchoalveolar lavage in interstitial lung diseases.

ABSTRACT

Fifty-eight patients of interstitial lung diseases and 30 control patients were submitted to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) with flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy. In 30 controls (with fluid recovery 61.7%) total cell count was 175 +/- 31/mm3 with macrophages 87.5 +/- 2.0%, neutrophils 7 +/- 1.9 and lymphocytes 5 +/- 0.6%. In idiopathic interstitial fibrosis (34 cases) these values were respectively 832 +/- 221/mm3, 47 +/- 5.5, 29 +/- 5.0 and 19 +/- 5 percent (significantly different P less than 0.005, 0.001, 0.1 and 0.005 respectively from control. The results of bilateral lavages in 28 interstitial cases were similar. In other categories viz sarcoidosis(8), macrophages were significantly fewer (61 +/- 10% P less than 0.05) and lymphocytes significantly more (27 +/- 6.4% P less than 0.05); in rheumatoid lung disease (4 cases) significantly fewer macrophages (45 +/- 5) were seen and 12 cases with methyl isocyanate exposure showed insignificant changes.