Baseline BAL neutrophilia predicts early mortality in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

BW Kinder, KK Brown, MI Schwarz, JH Ix, A Kervitsky… - Chest, 2008 - Elsevier
Background The prognostic value of BAL fluid cell count differential in patients with
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is unknown. We hypothesized that baseline BAL fluid cell
count differential (ie, elevated levels of neutrophils and eosinophils, or reduced levels of
lymphocytes) would predict higher mortality among persons with IPF. Methods We evaluated
the association of BAL fluid cell count differential and mortality among 156 persons with
surgical lung biopsy-proven IPF who underwent bronchoscopy with BAL and cell count …