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.