Three HIV positive subjects presented with symptoms and radiographic changes suggestive of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Methenamine silver staining of bronchoscopic alveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was negative (from one sample in one patient and two samples in the other two patients). Open lung biopsy was performed because of uncertain clinical progress and diagnosis; all three patients were fou...

BACKGROUND Autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (aPAP) is a rare lung disease caused by the autoantibody against granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The clinical course of aPAP is variable; in severe cases, patients develop lethal respiratory failure due to pulmonary fibrosis. However, the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis in aPAP has never been delineated. CASE P...

In an asymptomatic 4 yr old child with radiographic evidence of parenchymal lung disease, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) yielded the diagnosis of chronic lipid pneumonia caused by chronic aspiration of mineral oil given as a laxative. BAL analysis showed a marked reduction in the total number of alveolar macrophages; almost 70% of these cells contained intracytoplasmic lipid vacuoles. It also dis...

BACKGROUND Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronically progressive interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology. Previously, we have demonstrated the selective upregulation of the macrophage-derived chemokine CCL22 and the thymus activation-regulated chemokine CCL17 among chemokines, in a rat model of radiation pneumonitis/pulmonary fibrosis and preliminarily observed an increase in b...

Pulmonary inflammation and bacterial colonization are central to the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Defects in macrophage phagocytosis of both bacteria and apoptotic cells contribute to the COPD phenotype. Small molecule inhibitors with anti-inflammatory activity against p38 mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs), phosphatidyl-inositol-3 kinase (PI3K) and Rho k...

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare pulmonary disease. Diagnosis is established by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), which has macroscopic 'milky appearance', and in the presence of typical computed tomography, findings are diagnostic of PAP but, however, the feature of periodic acid-Schiff-positive eosinophilic proteinaceous fluid raises the confidence of the diagnosis. We report late-o...

Method A retrospective review of data for patients undergoing decortication for diagnosed stage III empyema was ascertained via prospectively recorded data. Histopathology and culture records were obtained from January 2011 to December 2014. A total of 67 cases were included. The study focused on intra-operative samples taken for microbiological analysis, cytology and histopathology. Material w...

A PCR primer specific to Nocardia farcinica was prepared based on sequence information of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. The PCR primer amplifies N. farcinica species only; no amplification was observed in 25 other Nocardia strains that we tested. Specificity of the primer for N. farcinica was also confirmed using other fungal and bacterial strains that are frequently isolate...

BACKGROUND The role of anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) antibodies as a diagnostic marker in idiopathic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (iPAP) remains unclear. METHODS Anti-GM-CSF antibodies were detected in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) fluid in 13 patients with iPAP. Three patients with secondary PAP, 35 with other pulmonary disorders, and 10 subj...

Microvesicles (MVs) released from almost all cells are recognized as cell communication tools. MVs have been investigated in several inflammatory diseases but poorly biological fluids like bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of smokers. The purpose this study was to investigate the presence and source BAL smokers with without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared nonsmoking controls. U...