Bronchoalveolar Lavage: Cytology and Clinical Applications

Excerpt

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is a widely used and welltolerated procedure consisting of sequential instillation and aspiration of saline through a fiberoptic bronchoscope wedged into a small bronchus. This technique allows the safe sampling and study of cells and noncellular material from the epithelial lining of the lower respiratory tract. The procedure is simple to do, but processing and analyzing the fluid and its constituents is complex. Bronchoalveolar lavage has been used with varying degrees of success to diagnose disease, to elucidate pathogenetic mechanisms, to study interactions between cells, to follow disease activity, and even to treat disease. The goal of