Role of bronchoalviolar lavage in pulmonary infections

• Main Authors: Bhatia G, Hemvani N, Chitnis D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2006-01-01
• Series: Lung India
• Subjects: BAL; Pneumonia; Tuberculosis; Pyogenic; Gram′s staining; Fungal
• Online Access: http://www.lungindia.com/article.asp?issn=0970-2113;year=2006;volume=23;issue=4;spage=147;epage=150;aulast=Bhatia

It was aimed to evaluate the diagnostic utility of bronchoalve Veolar lavage (BAL) from cases of infiltrative diseases of lung admitted at Choithram Hospital & Re-search Centre, Indore (M.P.) during 2003 to 2004. The analysis included gram′s staining, semi quantitative bacterial culture, AFB smear and culture, WBC and dif-ferential count and cytology. The gram′s staining was found to have 83.6% sensitivity as compared to semi quan-titative culture. Colony count> 10,000 / ml was considered as significant and 142 specimens yielded single organism while 56 had poly-microbial infections. Gram-negative bacilli like E.coli, Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa formed pyogenic infections. The analysis revealed pyogenic infections in 51%, tuberculosis in 21%, fungal in-fections in 12% and malignancy in 2% cases. Thus, the analysis of BAL specimen is valuable in the diagnosis of infiltrative disorders of lung.