[The diagnostic value of ribonuclease in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid to bronchogenic carcinoma].

Ribonuclease (RNase) was measured in a total of 78 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid specimens, including those from 32 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and 46 control subjects which comprised normal, pulmonary benign disease and other malignant disease groups. The significant elevation of the marker was found in lung cancer patients compared with control groups, and higher sensitivity and specificity were obtained by measuring BAL fluid than serum. Combined with fiberoptic bronchoscopy, it resulted in a positive detecting of 87.5 percent of lung cancer. This test was useful and untraumatic diagnostic method for lung cancer, especially for early stage and peripheral ones.