[The use of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in the study of airway inflammation].

Bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage can be used to investigate the airways inflammation associated with chronic bronchitis. Visual inspection of the airways provides presumptive evidence of inflammation and bronchoalveolar lavage can recover samples enriched for airways epithelial lining fluid contents. The ability to sample airways inflammation may provide a means of characterizing the airways inflammation associated with chronic bronchitis and of identifying mediators of inflammation that perpetuate the inflammation. Furthermore, bronchoalveolar lavage in conjunction with pulmonary function testing may provide a means for rapidly assessing responses to new therapeutic interventions.