Acute phase reaction in healthy volunteers after bronchoscopy with lavage.

Study Objectives: Bronchoscopy with BAL is being used increasingly in the investigation of acute and chronic lung inflammation. The scope of the acute phase response induced by the procedure is not fully evaluated. The purpose of the study is to characterize the acute phase response induced by bronchoscopy with BAL.

Exposure to concentrated ambient air particles alters hematologic indices in humans.

Descriptions of changes in hematological indices have contested the premise that the biological effects of suspended particulate matter (PM) are restricted to the lung. Employing approximately 40 hematologic parameters reflecting blood cells, chemistries, mediators, and coagulation factors, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to concentrated ambient air particles (CAPs) can be associated with changes in hematologic indices in normal humans. Twenty healthy young volunteers were exposed to either filtered air (n = 5) or CAPs (n = 15) with a mean PM mass of 120.