[The state of the protease-inhibitor system in the bronchoalveolar lavage of patients with diffuse lung diseases].

Proteolytic and antiproteolytic activities were studied in bronchoalveolar lavages of 102 patients with sarcoidosis of respiratory tissues, exogenous allergic and idiopathic fibrotic alveolitis. Deficiency of the antiproteolytic activity was observed in all the impairments studied, whereas elastase-like and fibrinolytic activities were distinctly increased in sarcoidosis and exogenous allergic alveolitis. Impairments of bronchial mucose, pathogenic microflora, increase in content of neutrophils in respiratory tract as well as potential deficiency of the body inhibitory system were responsible for disbalance in the system proteinases-inhibitors of bronchoalveolar lavage. Biochemical examination of bronchoalveolar lavages enabled to find that clinico-roentgenological dynamics of these diseases correlated with the level of proteolytic activity.