ABSTRACT
Despite its degree of invasiveness, BAL has been used in occupational medicine for quite some time, parti cularly as an assessment tool in mineral dustassociated diseases such as asbestos and talc pneumoconiosis (Karjalainen et al., 1994; Scancarello et al., 1996; Vathesatogkit et al., 2004; Kokkinis et al., 2011). Characteristic cytological features of the above-mentioned patient groups are asbestos bodies and talc bodies, respectively, in the cells (Haslam and Baughman, 1999). Other BAL ndings in asbestos-exposed individuals have shown moderate increases in neutrophils with or without increased eosinophils or lymphocytes. In a study of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, BAL cytokine and antioxidant enzyme level increases were related to disease status (Ulker et al., 2008). In silica, the amount
Bronchoalveolar Lavage ...........................................................................................................................................45 Induced Sputum ........................................................................................................................................................47 References .................................................................................................................................................................49
