[Bronchoalveolar lavage in fibrosing alveolitis--a parameter for evaluating activity and prognosis?]

Bronchoalveolar lavages (BAL) were performed in 19 patients in whom fibrotising alveolitis had been detected and confirmed. The patients were then followed up and controlled clinically for more than 12 months. The courses of the diseases did not reveal any group-specific behaviour (taking lymphocytic and granulocytic lavages into consideration) and were not predictable on the basis of the lavage patterns. With a BAL lymphocytosis, 40% of the patients showed clinical improvement and in 30% the disease became stable whereas in another 30% there was a deterioration. If more than 10% BAL granulocytes were present, 50% of the patients showed clinical deterioration, whereas the course became stable in 37.5% and clinical improvements were recorded in 12.5% of the patients.