Clinical, cytological and microbiological evaluation of bronchoalveolar lavage in children: A referral hospital-based study.
BACKGROUND
Diffuse lung diseases (DLD) in children involve a group of heterogeneous, rare disorders. In spite of the low diagnostic yield in pediatric DLD, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) can be used to diagnose specific disorders. There are few studies about microbial and cellular profiles of BAL samples in these patients. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical, cytological and microbiological evaluation of BAL in children with DLD.


METHODS
The clinical, cytological and microbiological profiles of BAL samples of all patients with DLD who underwent the fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) at Children's Medical Center, an Iranian referral pediatrics Hospital during a year were evaluated.


RESULTS
In 18 patients (18.4%) of the 98 cases studied, 22 pathogens were obtained as etiologic agents. The mean total cells count of BAL was 23.9 × 104 ± 12.9 × 104/ml. The mean percentages of cellular components were macrophages (70.2%), neutrophils (16.3%), lymphocytes (11.8%) and eosinophils (1.4%), respectively. The type of lung disease was significantly associated with the mean percentage of lymphocytes (p = 0.005) and the percentage of neutrophils (p = 0.042).


CONCLUSIONS
FOB and BAL evaluation in combination with clinical and radiographic imaging data may be helpful for identifying of presumptive diagnosis of DLD in children.
Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Babak
B
Pourakbari
Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Shima
S
Mahmoudi
Department of Infectious Diseases, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Amir Hossein
AH
Jafari
Department of Microbiology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Abbas
A
Bahador
School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sepideh
S
Keshavarz Valian
Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Reihaneh
R
Hosseinpour Sadeghi
Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Infectious Diseases, Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: smamishi@sina.tums.ac.ir.
Setareh
S
Mamishi
D018893:Bronchoalveolar Lavage / Q000379:methods*; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000166:cytology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D002648:Child; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000379:methods*; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*
Bronchoalveolar lavage; Diffuse lung disease; Fibroptic bronchoscopy; Pediatrics