Valor diagnóstico da lavagem brônquica e broncoalveolar na Tuberculose Pulmonar++Trabalho em parte apresentado no X Congresso de Patologia Respiratória e publicado em resum o nos Arquivos da SPPR.

ABSTRACTDuring a 3-year period, 76 patients with suspected Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PT) were submitted to fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) with bronchial washings (BW) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) to search for acid-fast bacilli (AFB). Fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed only in patients without sputum or with sputum smears negative for AFB. Pulmonary Tuberculosis was confumed in 35 cases (46%), FB contributing to the diagnosis in 30 patients (86%). Compared to BW, BAL bad a better diagnostic yield: BW positive smears in 11/ 30 (37%), while BAL was smear positive in 13/29 (45%); BW were positive in culture in 24/30 (80%) while BAL grew Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 27/29 (93%); BAL was the only source of early diagnosis in 2 cases and exclusively accounted for 4 positive cultures, while with BW, this only happened in 2 cases. In the remaining 45 cases, with negative bronchoscopic and sputum samples, the diagnosis was made from other specimens (pleural fluid positive culture, lymph node biopsy) in 2 and from the response to treatment in other 2.Our results confirm the diagnostic value of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in Pulmonary Tuberculosis, suggesting an important role of bronchoalveolar lavage in this setting