Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Vol 150, No. 2, 08 1994, 547-550.
Bronchoalveolar lavage: results of sequential, selective techniques in viable murines
A Reis, M Totsch, H Shennib, D Ofner, C Serrick, A Jamjoom, N Chikhani, G Mikuz and R Margreiter
Department of Transplantation, University of Innsbruck, Austria.
The purpose of this study was to develop an optimal technique for
performing sequential bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in a murine animal
model. Two general anesthetic regimens and four operative techniques of BAL
were tested. Anesthesia by intraperitoneal injection of ketamine
hydrochloride (100 mg/kg body wt) resulted in death for four of ten
subjects, whereas inhalation of diethyl ether led to death for one of ten
subjects. BAL using a balloon catheter under bronchoscopic guidance was
comparable with postmortal lavage, tolerated better, and resulted in
superior cell retrieval with respect to cell differential (macrophages: 95
+/- 2.3; lymphocytes: 3 +/- 1.2; polymorphonuclear lymphocytes [PNL]: 1.2
+/- 1.4) compared with two other techniques using a bent metal
tube/polyethylene tubing combination (macrophages: 19.3 +/- 27.4;
lymphocytes: 3.8 +/- 4.3; PNL: 35.5 +/- 35.5) and a
bronchoscope/polyethylene tubing combination (macrophages: 11.1 +/- 25.5;
lymphocytes: 0.7 +/- 1.0; PNL: 55.8 +/- 41.0). The BAL fluid contained
significantly more alveolar macrophages and fewer PNL and epithelial cells
(p = 0.0001, p = 0.0025, p = 0.02, respectively). We conclude that the
technique using a balloon catheter under bronchoscopic guidance during
inhalation of diethyl ether is the procedure of choice and results in a
representative sample of BAL.
