• Alessandro Vatrella, Marialuisa Bocchino, Francesco Perna, Raffaele Scarpa, Domenico Galati, Sergio Spina, Girolamo Pelaia, Mario Cazzola, and Alessandro Sanduzzi.
• Respiratory Medicine Division, University of Naples Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131 Naples, Italy. vatrella@unina.it
• Respir Med. 2007 Jul 1; 101 (7): 1383-9.

BackgroundInduced sputum (IS) sampling is a safe and validated approach to study bronchial inflammation in chronic obstructive lung diseases. Although promising results have also been reported in various diffuse interstitial lung disorders, the potential use of IS in the assessment of connective tissue diseases (CTD)-related lung involvement has not yet been investigated.Aim Of The StudyTo evaluate the clinical usefulness of IS in the early management of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic sclerosis (SSc) at the onset of respiratory symptoms.Patients And MethodsThe study population included 19 patients (RA=12; SSc=7) and 14 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Lung function testing, high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the thorax and IS collection were performed in all cases. Broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) was obtained in selected patients.ResultsIS samples from patients contained a significantly higher percentage of neutrophils and a lower percentage of macrophages compared to healthy subjects (p=0.002 and 0.001, respectively), while the total cell number showed no differences. In addition, sputa yielded both higher cell counts and higher neutrophils than BAL samples (p=0.02 in all instances). No correlations were found between IS findings and lung function parameters, HRCT and BAL findings.ConclusionsThis is the first study investigating the inflammatory cell pattern in IS from CTD patients with early clinical evidence of lung involvement. Future studies are needed to determine whether the assessment of airway inflammation adds significant information that may result in a relevant improvement of disease management.

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