Clinical role of cytologica! characteristics of bronchial inflammation in obstructive pulmonary diseases

Aim. To evaluate a clinical role of cytological characteristics of induced sputum (IS) and bronchial lavage (BL) in patients with different forms of bronchial asthma (BA) or chronic obstructive bronchitis (COB). Material and methods. The study included 128 BA patients (53 males and 75 females) at the age of 17 to 70 years (mean age 51.3 ±8.4 years) and 53 COB patients (32 males and 21 females) at the age 17 to 70 years. The material for the cytological examination was BL obtained by fibrobronchosco- py and IS obtained after 20-min halotherapy. Results. Percentages of eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes and alveolar macrophages in IS and BL have the same trends and a highly significant correlation coefficient by all the studied cells both in BA and COB patients. Conclusion. It was found possible to use IS cytology for evaluation of air way inflammation in BA and COB patients.