[Clinical study on acute bronchitis using inflammatory cytology of sputum]

During fifteen months between January 1989 and March 1990, 137 episodes (136 cases) of acute bronchitis were clinically examined in Iki Public Hospital. From the results of quantitative sputum culture in 99 episodes, 58 episodes (56.8%) had obviously bacterial infections. The three major causative bacteria were H. influenzae (45.7%), S. pneumoniae (27.1%) and B. catarrhalis (17.2%). Inflammatory cytology of the sputum revealed that in the patients with acute bronchitis macrophage, vivid neutrophils and bronchial epithelial cells were clearly observed, while in the patients of chronic respiratory infections those cells were fewer in number. Before and after therapy, respiratory functions and blood gas were evaluated in 45 cases. Significant improvements were observed in PaO2, FEV1.0, etc. During eight years from 1982 to 1989, B. catarrhalis has been gradually increasing, as one of major causative organisms. Each year, the rate of bacterial infection was approximately fifty percent in acute bronchitis.