BACKGROUND Smokers with silicosis are at increased risk of lung cancer. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the feasibility of using autofluorescence bronchoscopy after sputum examination for early detection of large airway lung cancer and factors associated with the presence of cancerous and pre-cancerous lesions among smokers with silicosis. METHODS Subjects at the pneumoconiosis clinic were recruited ...

SETTING This study determined the number of slides required to identify one additional case of sputum smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) from the third smear. The study hypothesis was that not more than 100 and 75 slides, respectively, in Mongolia and Zimbabwe, need to be examined to find one additional case of TB with a third serial diagnostic sputum smear examination. METHODS In a retrospecti...

Pulmonary hemosiderosis is an uncommon disorder in pediatric population in developing countries. It may affect the lung in an isolated form of Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemosiderosis (IPH) or as a manifestation of systemic disorders. The present patient belonging to Mongolian race presented with history of fever, cough, respiratory distress and previous episode of hemoptysis. The child had anemia, n...

A 38-year-old man was referred to our University Hospital for evaluation of chronic cough with sputum production. During the last 15 years, he had experienced an increased expectoration of mucoid sputum that became purulent during infectious exacerbations, sometimes with bloody sputum. He denied fever, wheezes, chest pain, dyspnea, or weight loss. No other respiratory illness was present. His p...

The diagnosis of tuberculosis in developing countries still relies on direct sputum examination by light microscopy, a method that is easy to perform and that is widely applied. However, because of its poor sensitivity and requirement for significant labor and training, light microscopy examination detects the bacilli in only 45 to 60% of all people whose specimens are culture positive for Myco...

A low-power microscope-based cytological system to assess the quality of expectorated sputum provided for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis was piloted in Bolivia. A total of 3688 samples were subjected to visual and cytological examination in nine laboratories: of these, 591 (16%) were misclassified by visual examination and 294 (8%) were found to be degraded. The degree of discordance varied betwee...

We evaluated the usefulness of repeated nebulized saline induced sputum examinations among 60 HIV infected patients clinically suspected to have Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). We found that the first sample was positive for 15 episodes (21.4%); the second sample was positive in 33 episodes (47.1%); the third sample was positive in 22 episodes (31.4%). Repeated nebulized saline induced sp...

OBJECTIVE To compare the diagnostic yield of AFB positivity with sputum induction to spontaneous sputum examination in suspected cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. STUDY DESIGN Comparative study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, from January to December 2006. METHODOLOGY Sputum specimens were collected by both techniques from 164 patients with clinical and radiolog...

Since Hempeln,’ in 1918, first reported tumor cells in the sputum of patients with lung cancer, a number of investigators2’3’5 have confirmed the value of cytological examination in the diagnosis of this disease. Using techniques developed by Papanicolaou,4 diagnosis of sputum cytology has been very accurate. Farber, et al.,3 reported 90 per cent accuracy in the positive diagnosis of lung cance...

In the case reported, serial evaluation of sputum inflammatory cell counts made it possible to identify an unusual series of events in a man with eosinophilic bronchitis. The patient initially presented with a productive cough, which did not respond to treatment with antibiotics or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids. A diagnosis of eosinophilic bronchitis was made after demonstration of intense ...