ArticleCanadian respiratory journal
Establishing a normal range for induced sputum cell counts in Western Canada.
Article in Canadian respiratory journal. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical and phenotypic characteristics of chronic cough patients without sputum eosinophilia.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2026Article
- How inhaled corticosteroids target inflammation in COPD.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2023Review
- Predictors of High Sputum Eosinophils in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (Miami, Fla.) · 2022Article
- Sputum Eosinophil Level among Healthy Individuals Visiting Medicine Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.JNMA; journal of the Nepal Medical Association · 2022Article
- Induced sputum abnormalities in gas station attendants.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2022Article
- Review
- Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Asymptomatic Pyuria in Chronic Kidney Disease.Annals of laboratory medicine · 2020Article
- Role of eosinophils in airway inflammation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2018Review
- Asthma biomarkers in the age of biologics.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2017Review
- The evolution of sputum cytometry to assess bronchitis.Canadian respiratory journalArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInduced sputum cell counts are a noninvasive, reliable method for evaluating the presence, type and degree of airway inflammation. Whether current reference values for induced sputum cell counts are applicable in other induced-sputum laboratories, particularly those in Western Canada or at elevated altitude, is not clear.
objectivesTo describe the normal range of induced sputum cell counts in healthy adults in Western Canada.
methodsA total of 105 healthy nonsmoking adults with normal bronchial responsiveness and no history of lung disease proceeded with sputum induction. Sputum samples were fixed in formalin.
resultsSixty-nine subjects were included in the final analyses. The mean ± SD and median (interquartile range) of the cell counts, respectively, were: total cell count 2.453 ± 2.108, 2.000 (2.512); neutrophils 1.212 ± 1.491, 0.721 (1.016); eosinophils 0.034 ± 0.069, 0.005 (0.043); macrophages 1.050 ± 1.213, 0.696 (1.005); lymphocytes 0.057 ± 0.161, 0.001 (0.049); and bronchial epithelial cells 0.041 ± 0.126, 0.000 (0.027). The respective differential cell percentages were: neutrophils 50.3 ± 23.5, 51.9 (32); eosinophils 1.4 ± 2.3, 0.3 (2); macrophages 43 ± 22.8, 39.3 (32); lymphocytes 2.6 ± 5.2, 0.4 (2.5); and bronchial epithelial cells 2.2 ± 4.8, 0.0 (2.9). Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients revealed excellent interobserver agreement for measurement of sputum cell types. DISCUSSION: The range of induced sputum cell counts performed in a laboratory in Western Canada in healthy nonsmoking adult subjects was described; cellular distributions were similar to previous studies. This was also the first description of normal values for formalin-fixed induced sputum samples.
conclusionsThese results confirm that current reference values for induced sputum are generalizable across different laboratories, including those in Western Canada and those at elevated altitude, and are also generalizable to formalin-fixed samples, allowing use in the broader Canadian asthma population.
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