Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid lymphocytosis in 104 dogs (2006‐2016)

Abstract

Background Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid cytology and culture are used to characterize respiratory diseases in dogs. Little is known about disorders associated with increased numbers of lymphocytes in BAL fluid. Objective To evaluate duration of clinical signs and detection of specific respiratory diagnoses in dogs with BAL lymphocytosis. Animals One‐hundred four client‐owned dogs evaluated for respiratory signs. Methods Medical records of dogs that had >300 cells/μL and >20% lymphocytes on a differential cell count of BAL fluid between January 1, 2006, and January 1, 2016, were reviewed retrospectively. Cases were evaluated for the duration of clinical signs and respiratory diagnoses, including aspiration injury, infectious or inflammatory respiratory disease, and airway collapse. Results Dogs ranged in age from 0.5 to 16 years (median, 7.9 years) and had a median body weight of 11.4 kg (range, 2.0‐42.7 kg). Eosinophilic lung disease was documented in 13 of 104 dogs (Group 1) and airway neutrophilia associated with infectious or inflammatory disease was found in 59 of 104 dogs (Group 2). Lymphocytosis alone in BAL fluid was described in 32 dogs (Group 3). Duration of cough did not differ among groups, but airway collapse was significantly more common in dogs with solitary lymphocytosis than in those with other types of inflammation. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Lymphocytosis in BAL fluid is common in dogs and, in many cases, likely represents a common response to airway injury, independent of the type or duration of insult. It is unknown whether airway collapse leads to lymphocytosis or if the inflammatory process causes airway collapse.

Presence of bronchial nodules, younger age, and heavier body weight are associated with a diagnosis of eosinophilic lung disease in dogs with cough

“…Less commonly, neoplastic cells, small lymphocytes, and plasma cells were found. Lymphocytosis, as defined as an amount of lymphocytes > 20%, was more common in a recently published study, 16 accounting for 21.6% (123/569) BAL cytology samples. It is unclear why there is such a substantial difference in the presentation of BAL lymphocytosis in these 2 populations, considering that the proportion of dogs with ELD was instead similar.…”

“…On the basis of previous literature, [13][14][15][16] and to include an unequivocal abnormal increase of eosinophils, the clinical diagnosis of lung eosinophilia in this study was made if the BAL sample contained > 25% eosinophils among all cells retrieved (Figure 2).…”

Bronchoalveolar lavage affects thorax computed tomography of healthy and SARS-CoV-2 infected rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

“…Computed tomography (CT) of the thorax and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) are diagnostic procedures widely used in clinical pulmonary research and veterinary medicine [9][10][11][12]. These techniques are also used in COVID-19 research in NHPs to gain more information and to create a bridge between the human and NHP data [6,13,14].…”

>b<Cultura e citologia qualitativa de lavado bronco-alveolar não- endoscópico em cães com histórico de pneumonia recorrente ou de difícil controle>/b<: Série de casos

“…Apesar de todos os pacientes terem sido tratados com antimicrobianos, a recidiva das manifestações clínicas após a administração de antibióticos sugere que os pacientes em questão possuíam uma doença inflamatória primária de base (exceção feita ao paciente do caso 7 que possuía megaesôfago). Já é bem descrita a presença de processos inflamatórios primários mediados por diferentes tipos celulares, como eosinófilos, neutrófilos e até mesmo linfócitos e a contagem diferencial dos leucócitos presentes no lavado bronco-alveolar é a técnica usada para diferenciar esses processos entre si (HAWKINS et al, 1994;JOHNSON et al, 2016JOHNSON et al, , 2019VERNAU, 2019 O cão descrito no caso 9 (Chow chow) não apresentava em seu histórico manifestações como tosse ou dispnéia. No entanto, esta paciente apresentou achados radiográficos e hematológicos além de análise microbiológica e citológica da amostra obtida por lavado bronco-alveolar compatíveis com pneumonia bacteriana.…”

“…Leucocitose estava presente em 58% (7/12) dos pacientes incluídos no estudo e nenhum deles apresentou hipertermia durante o exame físico. Leucocitose também é um dado que não pode ser avaliado isoladamente para diagnóstico de infecção do trato respiratório inferior já que é um dado possível de ser encontrado em doenças pulmonares eosinofílicas (JOHNSON et al, 2019). Além disso, pode não estar presente em pacientes com pneumonia (RADHAKRISHNAN et al, 2007) e, em estudos realizados em humanos, há evidências que idosos podem não apresentar leucocitose e, quando isso acontece, a mortalidade é bem mais alta (HENIG; KAYE, 2017).…”