[Significance of bronchial alveolar lavage in the diagnosis of eosinophilic pneumonia].

We describe 3 cases of eosinophilic pneumonia of unknown etiology with atypical clinical findings diagnosed by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). In 2 patients with subacute symptoms and restrictive ventilatory dysfunction there was no eosinophilia in peripheral blood, and chest X-ray showed a bilateral acinar and mixed interstitial-acinar pattern respectively. Transbronchial lung biopsies revealed only nonspecific changes. The third patient had acute respiratory failure and the eosinophils in peripheral blood were 1500/microliters. Chest X-ray demonstrated only minimal interstitial changes. In all instances the eosinophilic pneumonia was diagnosed by a marked BAL-eosinophilia of 25 to 45%. No specific etiology could be detected for the eosinophilic lung disease. The response to treatment with corticosteroids was prompt.