@article {dos Santosp4390, author = {Cl{\'a}udia Lares dos Santos and Jo{\~a}o Moura e S{\'a} and Raquel Duarte}, title = {The role of bronchoalveolar lavage in suspected pulmonary tuberculosis with negative sputum}, volume = {38}, number = {Suppl 55}, elocation-id = {p4390}, year = {2011}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {Introduction: Patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis and negative sputum samples constitute a problem that is not uncommon in clinical practice. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy is an alternative method of collecting respiratory samples that plays an important role in such cases.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the yield of bronchoalveolar lavage in early diagnosis of negative sputum smear pulmonary tuberculosis and its value in obtaining other diagnoses.Methods: The study was conducted for 27 months in a central hospital. Bronchoscopy was performed in patients after three consecutive negative sputum smears for acid-fast bacilli, in order to obtain bronchoalveolar lavage samples. Written informed consent was obtained.Results: The overall diagnostic yield of fiberoptic bronchoscopy was 39\% (39 out of 100) and included 18\% of other diagnosis than tuberculosis with 3 cases of malignant disease. Through bronchoalveolar lavage smear and nucleic acid amplification test for M. tuberculosis an immediate diagnosis was obtained in 57.1\%. Median time to positive culture was lower in bronchoalveolar lavage compared to sputum (p=0.001). The global resistance to antituberculosis drugs was 19\%.Conclusions: Bronchoalveolar lavage samples were helpful in the management of smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis. The procedure had good diagnostic yield and contributed to the diagnosis of other diseases.}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p4390}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }