Leukotriene B4 and lnterleukin-8 in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-related Pulmonary Disease (8)

Pneumocystis carinii Pneumonia
Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid IL-8 was elevated in patients with P carinii pneumonia compared with that in normal volunteers (p = 0.009; Fig IB) and correlated with absolute neutrophil count (r=0.73; p = 0.005) but not with P(A-a)02 (r = 0.57; p = 0.11). BAL fluid LTB4 was not elevated in patients with P carinii pneumonia. BAL PLAa was elevated in patients with P carinii pneumonia in comparison with that in normal volunteers (p=0.021; Fig 1C), but did not correlate with absolute neutrophil count or P(A-a)02. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid absolute neutrophil count was not significantly elevated in patients with P carinii pneumonia as a group compared with the asymptomatic patients or the normal volunteers (Fig 1D), but 8 of 15 patients had BAL absolute neutrophil counts greater than 1 standard error above the mean of the normal subjects.
Nonspecific Interstitial Pneumonitis
BAL fluid LTB4, PLAa, and IL-8 were elevated in patients with NIP compared with those values in normal volunteers (p = 0.008, 0.025, 0.044, respectively; Fig 1). The BAL fluid LTB4 also was elevated in comparison with the levels in asymptomatic HIV-positive patients (p = 0.046). Absolute neutrophil count was not significantly elevated in the patients with NIP (Fig ID), but four of nine patients had BAL fluid absolute neutrophil counts greater than 1 standard error above the mean of the normal subjects. IL-8 levels correlated with P(A-a)02 (r = 0.92; p = 0.009), but correlation with absolute neutrophil count was poorer (r = 0.77; p = 0.12). The LTB4 and PLAa correlated with absolute neutrophil count (r = 0.82, was not significantly elevated in this group. There was a trend toward elevation of BAL fluid PLA2 in the asymptomatic HIV-positive patients in comparison with that in the normal volunteers which did not achieve significance after correcting for multiple comparisons (p = 0.057). Absolute neutrophil count was not elevated in the asymptomatic HIV-positive patients compared with that in the normal volunteers (Fig 1D).

Figure 1. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid characteristics of patient groups (mean ± SEM; error bars represent SEM): A, LTB4; B, IL-8; C, PLA*; D, absolute neutrophil count. Asterisk, p<0.05 compared with normal volunteers. Double asterisk, p<0.05 compared with both normal volunteers and asymptomatic HIV-positive patients. PCP, P carinii pneumonia.

Category: Pulmonary disease

Tags: absolute neutrophil counts, bronchoalveolar lavage, Bronchoscopy, carinii pneumonia, hiv-positive patients