Lower respiratory tract infections are common in children. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid has long been established as the best biological sample for detecting infections; however, it is not easily collected Sputum may be used an alternative yet its diagnostic accuracy remains controversial. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate of sputum lower using metagenomic next-generation sequencing. Pai...

BACKGROUND The usefulness of induced sputum in searching for causative agents of pneumonia in children has not been studied. METHODS The study involved 101 children, aged 6 months to 15 years, treated for community-acquired pneumonia at Turku University Hospital (Turku, Finland) from January 2006 to April 2007. Nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were first collected through both nostrils. Sputum...

The method that we have previously reported for sputum induction involves collecting the entire expectorate produced over a 20 min inhalation of 3% saline aerosol. This method presents the potential disadvantage of a considerable and variable salivary contribution to the induced sputum sample. In this study, we examined whether separate collection of saliva and sputum represents a better method...

Changes in the behavior of sputum viscoelasticity due to differences in macroscopic appearance of sputum brought about by stirring and those due to the addition of an expectorant to purulent sputum in vitro, were studied in a coaxial cylinder rheometer. First, initial results from stirring the sputum indicated the following: Samples of untreated sputum showed no obvious differences among the th...

Since the 1980s, sputum induction by inhalation of hypertonic saline has been successfully used for diagnosing Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in patients infected with HIV. In recent years, sputum induction and its subsequent processing has been refined as a noninvasive research tool providing important information about inflammatory events in the lower airways, and it has been used for studyin...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the amount and inflammatory components of the sputum in patients with "disharmony of stomach", including gastroesophageal reflux disease, peptic ulcer and chronic gastritis. METHODS Sputum production was induced by inspiration of aerosol of 3.5% hypertonic saline with ultrasonic nebulizer, and the total cell count in the sputum was examined. Sputum smear stained with Gims...

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) remains a challenge in clinic, especially for sputum negative pulmonary TB. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) has higher sensitivity than sputum for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). However, bronchoscopy is invasive and costly, and not suitable for all patients. In order to make TB patients get more benefit from BALF...