Abstract
It is important to assess airway function in the management of pulmonary diseases. For this purpose, bronchoalveoral lavage (BAL), transbronchial biopsy (TBB), and sputum examination have been widely used. However BAL and TBB are invasive methods, and sputum is not always obtained spontaneously. To decide the clinical usefulness of induced sputum examination, we examined 1) its usefulness for diagnosis and 2) complication evoked by the procedure in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, lung cancer and bronchial asthma. The numbers of specimen collection and the diagnostic value of induced sputum examination were compared with those of spontaneous sputum examination. The rate of sample collection and the diagnosis were higher in induced sputum examination than in spontaneous sputum examination. In asthma patients, the number of eosinophils was significantly higher than that in the non-asthma patients. Concerning the complications of the procedure, there were only 3 patients who complained of nausea, and 3 patients had asthma attacks. No patients showed decrease of O_2 saturation and FEV_<1.0>. We concluded that induced sputum examination is useful and safe technique for the evaluation of pulmonary disease.
