Characterization of the elemental and particle load of patient exhaled breath condensate and comparison with pulmonary lavages.

In the field of biomonitoring, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is described as a potentially useful matrix for assessing inhalation exposure biomarkers in a non-invasive way. However, it is still unclear to what extent EBC is representative of the deep lung. To address this knowledge gap, EBC, bronchial washes (BWs), and bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) were collected from 82 patients suffering from interstitial lung diseases (ILDs).