[Effect of standardized hay exposure of healthy probands and patients with farmer's lung with special reference to bronchoalveolar lavage].

Ten farmers with farmer's lung disease, and 15 healthy subjects who had not previously been exposed to hay, were exposed to hay for one hour. Over a period of twenty-four hours, the symptoms, number of leukocytes, temperature and pulmonary functional-analytical parameters were recorded. In all the cases with farmer's lung, and in seven of the healthy test subjects, broncho-alveolar lavages (BAL) were carried out prior to and 48 hours after the exposure to hay. In the patients with farmer's lung, a systemic, statistically significant reaction associated with an increase in the number of leukocytes to about 7,400/cmm, together with an increase in temperature of about 1.6 degrees C, occurred 8 hours after the initiation of the provocative test. In addition, a primary reaction developed, with a statistically significant decrease in vital capacity (VC) by 700 ml, of the total lung capacity (TLC) of 500 ml, and of the oxygen partial pressure of 14 mmHg. Four hours after the start of the provocation, the resistance increased, on average, by 0.5 cm H2O/l/s (p less than 0.05). In the case of the farmers with farmer's lung disease, a comparison of the cell composition of the BAL fluid prior to and after the provocative test revealed a decrease in the percentage of macrophages from 84.6 +/- 9.1% to 46.8 +/- 15.7% (p less than 0.003), an increase in the percentage of lymphocytes from 10.8 +/- 6.6% to 26.4 +/- 23.4% (p less than 0.04), and an increase in the percentage of polymorphs from 4.3 +/- 5.7% to 26.4 +/- 20.0% (p less than 0.004).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)