[Discriminatory value of bronchoalveolar lavage parameters in differential diagnosis--exogenous allergic alveolitis, sarcoidosis and patients with healthy lungs].

For this study, the results of 487 BAL investigations involving 126 patients with sarcoidosis, 34 patients with exogenous-allergic alveolitis, 18 subjects with healthy lungs, and 309 patients with other pulmonary disorders, were analysed. The diagnoses had been established independently of the BAL results. After elimination of interdependent variables, the discriminatory usefulness of the BAL parameters: total number of cells, relative percentage of lymphocytes, natural killer cells, and T4/T8 ratio, was analysed with the aid of ROC curves and the Wilcoxon test. The ROC curves permit a rapid overview of the differential significance of the various BAL variables, and identify the relationship between sensitivity and specificity.