ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Dhanashree P. Inamdar1 , B. Anuradha1, Padmanabh Inamdar2 and Poojitha Sai Patti3
1Department of Microbiology, Mamata Medical College and Hospital, Khammam – 507 002, Telangana, India.
2Department of Surgery, Mamata Medical College and Hospital, Khammam – 507 002, Telangana, India.
3Mamata Medical College and Hospital, Khammam – 507 002, Telangana, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2021;15(3):1508-1516 | Article Number: 6893
https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.15.3.45 | © The Author(s). 2021
Received: 14/02/2021 | Accepted: 29/07/2021 | Published: 17/08/2021
Abstract

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is the saline wash of the bronchial tree, which aids in diagnosing various pulmonary pathologies. The present study was contemplated with an aim to know the clinical, microbiological profile of BAL samples along with its sensitivity pattern and to assess its utility as a diagnostic tool. This was a prospective observational study, carried over 90 patients presenting with lower respiratory tract infections. The total microbial recovery rate from BAL was 39 (43.3%). The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of BAL were found to be 76.4%, 89.7% and 90.6% respectively. Maximum isolates were bacteria (25.5%) followed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (16.6%) and fungi (1.1%). Predominant bacterial isolates were Gram-negative (81.5%) compared to Gram-positive (18.5%). Multidrug resistance (MDR) in bacteria was seen in 59.2% of isolates. BAL is a valuable diagnostic tool to find not only bacterial but mycobacterial and fungal infections in patients with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). A trend towards LRTI with Gram-negative infections is on the rise and they tend to be multidrug-resistant. Hence checking susceptibility patterns is crucial to start evidence-based treatment.

Keywords

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), LRTI, MTB, MDR, Bacteria, Fungi

Article Metrics

Article View: 697

Share This Article

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.