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标本时使用了不同的方法，我们认为有必要对每个实验室在这些标本上获得的结果进行回顾。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。数据分析的初步结果表明，细胞学制剂对直接检测重要的真菌病原体比微生物学制备的涂片更敏感。这可能是因为细胞学中用于制备涂片的材料体积较大。收集了大约7年的数据，目前正在对这些数据进行分析，以评估这两个实验室不仅对真菌，而且对其他病原体（如结核分枝杆菌和卡氏肺囊虫）的检测程序的相对敏感性。

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.