Methods: The patients with peripheral eosinophilia greater than 1500/mm3 and diagnosed as eosinophilic lung disease according to clinical, radiological and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) findings were included.
Demographics and clinical characteristics (asthma diagnosis duration, atopy status, NSAID hypersensitivity, number of eosinophils at the time of diagnosis, total IgE level, FEV1%, average dose of steroid used, recurrences, etc) were recorded. Patients were divided to 3 groups according to BAL eosinophil levels (Group 1: BAL eosinophil level >25%, Group 2: BAL eosinophil level< 25%, Group 3: The patients without bronchoscopy). We compared these 3 groups in term of demographic and clinical characteristics.
Results: 20 patients were included. Mean age, the number of eosinophils at the time of diagnosis, total IgE level, FEV1% before and after treatment, average dose of steroids used for treatment were 43.75±2.5year ,2680±251.48/mm3, 213±62 IU/L, 55.05±4.22%, 93,40±2.96%, 13.66±1.03 mg respectively. No differences were detected between Group 1 and Group 2 in terms of demographic and clinical characteristics. Group 3 is differed from the other two groups, in terms of the number of eosinophils at the time of the diagnosis. In this group, the number of eosinophils was higher (p = 0.019). We could manage to stop the steroid treatment in only 4 patients. Sixteen recurrences were detected in 8 patients. There was no difference between groups in terms of recurrence.
Conclusions: Despite the apparent diversity of BAL eosinophil values in Group 1 and Group 2, demographic and clinical chracteristics and therapeutic responses are similar. This finding showed that patients with eosinophilic lung disease may have a wide distribution of BAL eosinophil levels, and clinic characteristics and therapeutic responses are independent from BAL eosinophil levels.