[Functional activity of alveolar macrophages in exacerbation of pulmonary tuberculosis]

The authors estimated the cellular composition of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, the functional activity of alveolar macrophages from the recovery of tetrazolium nitroblue (TNB test) in 39 patients with an exacerbation of secondary forms of pulmonary tuberculosis before and after prodigiosane stimulation, made a correlation analysis in order to elucidate the correlations between the parameters of a TNB test and the count of macrophages and neutrophils. On an exacerbation of tuberculosis, the activity of a population of alveolar macrophages did not increase, but in its infiltrative form, it even decreased as compared with the normal values. After prodiogiosane stimulation, the in vitro activity of alveolar macrophages increased by almost 60% in infiltrative tuberculosis and by 100% in fibrocavernous tuberculosis; there was no substantial rise in the activity in tuberculoma. The poor protective functions of alveolar macrophages were compensated by the enhanced inflow of alveolar macrophages and neutrophils into the airway lumens, as suggested by the correlation between their activity and count.