Abstract
In hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) sometime show atypical lymphocytes (AT). We compared lymphocytes from (5 patients) with BAL flui from small lymphocytic lymphoma and leukemia (LL from 6 patients). In a Giemsa-stained specimen, 500 lymphocytes per case were categorized as N (normal), A (smaller than a neutrophil, atypical nuclear shape), AS (A with abnormal chromatin), and AL (larger than a neutrophil, with atypia), then calculated the ratio of each category. AT accounted for 14 to 22%(A + AS, AL= 0%) in HP, but LL showed a high A+AS ratio (>51.7%) with AL (>0.2%). Thus, calculating the ratio of small AT is important to avoid misinterpretation of BAL samples when AT is observed.
