COMPARISON OF MICROBIOLOGIC AND CYTOLOGIC RESULTS FOR BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGES

支气管肺泡灌洗标本通常分为细胞学和微生物学。由于这两个实验室在处理这些样本时使用不同的方法，我们认为审查每个实验室对这些样本所获得的结果是有用的。这样的审查可能有助于确定所采用的不同程序的相对敏感性，建议可能需要消除的冗余区域，并有助于确定最有可能产生临床显著结果的程序。分析数据的初步结果表明，细胞学准备更敏感的直接检测显着的真菌病原体比涂片制备的微生物学。这可能是因为细胞学中用于制备涂片的材料体积较大。已收集了约7年的数据，目前正在进行分析，以评估两个实验室中进行的程序的相对灵敏度，不仅用于真菌，而且用于检测其他病原体，如结核分枝杆菌和卡氏肺孢子虫。

Bronchoalveolar lavage specimens are usually split between cytology and microbiology. As different methodologies are used by these two laboratories in the work-up of these specimens, we thought it would be useful to review the results obtained on these specimens by each laboratory. Such a review might help define the relative sensitivities of the different procedures employed, suggest areas of redundancy that might be candidates for elimination, and help identify the procedures most likely to produce clinically significant results. Preliminary results of the data analyzed suggest that cytology preparations are more sensitive for the direct detection of significant fungal pathogens than the smears prepared in microbiology. This is presumably because of the larger volume of material used for preparation of smears in cytology. The data for approximately 7 years have been collected and are currently being analyzed to assess the relative sensitivities of the procedures performed in the two laboratories not only for fungi, but for the detection of other pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Pneumocystis carinii.