Bronchoscopic biopsies and bronchoalveolar lavage.

Bronchoscopy with biopsies, bronchoalveolar lavage, and other sampling techniques are frequently needed to establish definitive diagnoses of pulmonary disorders. Combinations of specimens provide superior results to single specimens alone for lung cancer, including those which are endoscopically visible and peripheral in location. Transbronchial biopsy is useful to establish tissue diagnoses in certain diffuse parenchymal lung diseases with specific recognizable histologic patterns such as sarcoidosis or eosinophilic granuloma, but it is less useful for disorders such as interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. Patients with tuberculosis can be diagnosed by performing bronchoscopy, but other sampling techniques are equally good and safer for the bronchoscopist and other health care workers. Bronchoalveolar lavage is especially valuable for confirming infectious complications in immunocompromised hosts, and it also has great potential to elucidate basic mechanisms of pulmonary diseases in research applications.