Screening for pulmonary mycosis

Introduction Prevalence of pulmonary mycosis is increasing because of increase in the number of susceptible people, increasing awareness toward these infections, and improved methods of laboratory diagnosis. Inflammation of airway and microbiology of various respiratory infections can be studied using sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). The advantage of sputum examination is that it is a noninvasive procedure as compared with BAL. Objective To explore the pulmonary mycosis and compare the yield of induced sputum and BAL for detecting pulmonary mycosis. Patients and methods The present study was conducted on 98 patients of all age groups and sex who underwent bronchoscopy in the Department of Respiratory Medicine, in association with the Department of Microbiology. Sputum/induced sputum and BAL were collected in sterile vials and sent to the microbiology for examination for fungal species. In microbiology, sputum/BAL samples were subjected to direct microscopy and cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar. Culture was observed daily until 21 days for any fungal growth. Discussion Of 98 patients, 60 were detected with fungal infection via sputum, whereas 64 of 98 patients were detected positive for fungal infection via BAL. Yield of sputum compared with the BAL for diagnosis of fungal infection showed sensitivity of 85.93%, specificity of 85.29%, positive predictive value of 91.66%, negative predictive value of 76.31%, and accuracy of 85.71%. Conclusion Results were slightly better with BAL, but the difference was not much significant.