Induced sputum in patients with interstitial lung disease: a non-invasive surrogate for certain parameters in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.
Induced sputum is a useful non-invasive method for the assessment of airway and parenchymal lung diseases. This study aimed to compare induced sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cellular composition and T-lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with interstitial lung disease. We evaluated 33 patients: 15 with sarcoidosis, 11 with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and 7 with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The percentage of macrophages was significantly lower in induced sputum than in BALF in sarcoidosis (P=0.005), and the percentage of neutrophils was higher in induced sputum than in BALF in sarcoidosis (P=0.001) and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (P=0.006). A significant correlation was found between the BALF and induced sputum CD4+, CD8+ subsets and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio in both the whole patient group (r(s)=0.80, r(s)=0.88, r(s)=0.88, P<0.001, respectively) and in the 3 subgroups. A strong correlation of the T-lymphocyte subsets in induced sputum and BALF in patients with interstitial lung disease shows that induced sputum may be a non-invasive surrogate for certain parameters in BALF in these patients.
Sobiecka
M
M
First Department of Lung Diseases, National Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland. m.sobiecka@openstar.pl.
Kus
J
J
Demkow
U
U
Filewska
M
M
Jozwik
A
A
Radwan-Rohrenschef
P
P
Chorostowska-Wynimko
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000166:cytology*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000473:pathology; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000473:pathology; D012130:Respiratory Hypersensitivity / Q000473:pathology; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000473:pathology; D013183:Sputum / Q000166:cytology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology