Bronchoalveolar lavage in smokers: quantification of alveolar macrophages and neutrophils as markers of bronchial obstruction

Abstract

Increased concentrations of neutrophils and alveolar macrophages are recovered in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of smokers compared with non-smokers. We designed a study to determine the relationship between neutrophils and alveolar macrophages recovered by BAL and the degree of air-flow obstruction, measured by spirometry (chronic air-flow obstruction was defined as: FEV1 < 80% of predicted and FEV1/FVC ratio < 70% of predicted) in healthy smokers. We found a significant correlation between spirometric values and the number of neutrophils and alveolar macrophages in BAL fluid obtained from healthy smokers. Our findings suggest that counts of 13-15x1000 neutrophils/ml and/or 430-450x1000 alveolar macrophages/ml in BAL fluid could be used as markers of air-flow obstruction in smokers.