Medycyna Wet. 62 (6), 678-382, 2006
Spużak J.
Bronchoalveolar lavage examination in diagnosing lower airways diseases in dogs
The aim of the research was to evaluate the possibility of applying bronchial tree lavage and cytological and microbiological examination of BAL in the diagnostics of bronchial and lung diseases in dogs. 47 dogs of different breed, size and sex, aged from 1 to 16 years, were included in the examination. The dogs were divided into 2 groups. Group I included 16 clinically healthy dogs. In order to evaluate the amount of recovered fluid and the selection of the optimal method of BAL execution, bronchoalveolar lavage was conducted in the case of 4 dogs from this group, in 6-week intervals, by means of two methods: a) with cannula introduced into the bronchus through the working canal of the endoscope; b) directly through the working canal of the endoscope wedged into the bronchus. In the subsequent 12 dogs, bronchoalveolar lavage was only carried out through the working canal of the endoscope wedged into the bronchus, while the selected material was subject to quantitative and qualitative evaluation. Group II included 31 dogs with symptoms arousing suspicion of lower airways diseases, directed to endoscope laboratory for conducting bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage. The following was conducted to dogs from both groups before endoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage: case history, clinical examination, hematological and bio-chemical examination of blood, chest X-ray and EKG examination. The following was taken into consideration in lavage evaluation: amount of recovered fluid from lavage (ml), macroscopic appearance, number of cells (number of cells/µl), cell vitality (%), and the cytological and microbiological examination which was executed. On the basis of the conducted examinations it was proved that: bronchoalveolar lavage is a safe and useful method for supplementing diagnostic procedure in lower airway diseases; the examination allows the cytological and microbiological evaluation of the state of the lower airways in dogs.
Keywords: dog, bronchoscopy, bronchoalveolar lavage