title: Effect of chemotherapy on cell counts in peripheral blood & bronchoalveolar lavage of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
abstract: Cell counts in peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were estimated in 38 patients with active tuberculosis; 12 patients with tuberculosis who had successfully completed more than 9 months of chemotherapy with isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol; 10 Mantoux negative bronchitic subjects; and 6 control subjects. There were 50 males and 16 females aged 16-50 yr. Age, haemoglobin, total and differential serum proteins, were comparable in the various groups. Patients with active tuberculosis had higher ESR and significantly raised absolute (2.24 +/- 0.13 x 10(3); P less than 0.05), B (0.56 +/- 0.03 x 10(3); P less than 0.01) and Null lymphocyte counts (0.56 +/- 0.05 x 10(3); P less than 0.01) in blood. After chemotherapy there was no significant change in lymphocyte counts (2.43 +/- 0.21; P greater than 0.05). In bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) total cell counts were increased five fold in patients with active disease (40.8 +/- 5.79 x 10(4)/ml) and although these showed considerable reduction after therapy they were higher (18.33 +/- 4.73 x 10(4)/ml) than those in controls (8.3 +/- 1.2 x 10(4)/ml; P greater than 0.05). In bronchitic subjects, total cell counts and macrophage counts in BAL fluid were elevated (P less than 0.01; less than 0.05 respectively) but lymphocyte counts were comparable to controls (3.4 +/- 1.35 x 10(4)/ml vs 1.09 +/- 0.19 x 10(4)/ml; P greater than 0.05). Lymphocytosis in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis persisted even after adequate treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhand
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Ganguly
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jaswal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000166:cytology*; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008264:Macrophages; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*