© 2002 American Thoracic Society DOI: 10.1165/rcmb.2002-0028OC Polystyrene Microspheres as a Specific Marker for the Diagnosis of Aspiration in HamstersInstitute of Pulmonology and Department of Pathology, Hadassah University Hospital and Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel; and Department of Chemistry, Bar–Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Address correspondence to: Dr. A. Avital, Institute of Pulmonology, Hadassah University Hospital, POB 12000, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. E-mail: avital{at}hadassah.org.il The diagnosis of recurrent aspiration in young children is problematic because there is no specific gold standard test to be used. In the present work, normal saline or a suspension of white polystyrene microspheres in normal saline was instilled into hamsters' trachea (n = 42), and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytology, microsphere index (total microspheres/100 macrophages), and lung histology were followed for 90 d. Naive animals (n = 6) had no tracheal instillation. On Days 1, 3, 10, 32, 60, and 90 after tracheal instillation, animals were killed (saline-instilled animals, n = 3; and microsphere-instilled animals, n = 4), and BAL was performed. There was a marked inflammatory response in BAL on Day 1 after tracheal instillation of saline or microsphere suspension. White microspheres were clearly identified within alveolar macrophages in all studied days. Microsphere numbers showed a 50% disappearance rate of 10 d. A mild peribronchial inflammation was noted in lung histology only on Day 1 after instillation. Microspheres were not detected in extrapulmonary organs. We conclude that polystyrene microspheres instilled in hamsters' trachea can be easily identified in BAL macrophages for as long as 3 mo and could potentially be used as a sensitive, specific, and stable marker for the diagnosis of aspiration.
Abbreviations: bronchoalveolar lavage, BAL This article has been cited by other articles:
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