The performance of high-volume bronchoalveolar lavage for the evaluation and diagnosis of interstitial lung disease.
Although high-volume bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is an excellent research tool, its use in the evaluation of interstitial lung disease remains controversial, particularly in the age of lung biopsy in video-assisted thoracic surgery. Recently, a new practice guideline made several important recommendations for the performance of the procedure and the handling, processing, and analysis of samples. Here we describe this recommended technique, our experience performing BAL in 42 patients, and the usefulness of our differential cell count results. We demonstrate that BAL is straightforward and safe to perform and conclude that it may offer valuable data in evaluating interstitial lung disease, particularly in patients with an acute presentation or who are not fit for lung biopsy.
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Karanvir
K
Singh
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Sadiq
S
Khan
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Sushil
S
Agarwal
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Gareth
G
Walters
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Centre for Translational Inflammation Research, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Electronic address: e.e.mcgrath@bham.ac.uk.
Emmet E
EE
McGrath
D018893:Bronchoalveolar Lavage / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic
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