Table 4.
BALF cellular differential counts assessed by microscopy.
| Sarcoidosis (N = 30) |
Other DPLDs (N = 17) |
Healthy controls (N = 14) |
P* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total cell concentration (106/mL) | 19 (15–28) | 26 (11–29) | 14 (12–17) | 0.01 |
|
| ||||
| Lymphocytes (%) | 35 (24–53) | 34 (14–48)§ | 14 (10–25) | 0.001 |
|
| ||||
| Neutrophils (%) | 2 (1–4)## | 6 (2–9) | 3 (2–5) | 0.15 |
|
| ||||
| Mast cells (per 10 squares) | 4 (2–9)## | 21 (8–63)§§ | 2 (0–5) | 0.04 |
|
| ||||
| Eosinophils (%) | 0 (0-1)## | 3 (1–9)§§ | 0 (0-0) | 0.14 |
|
| ||||
| Alveolar macrophages (%) | 60 (45–73) | 47 (26–74)§§ | 81 (69–85) | 0.001 |
Data are shown as median (IQR). *P values represent pairwise comparison between sarcoidosis and healthy controls with Mann-Whitney U test conducted if significant differences were found with Kruskal-Wallis test. § P < 0.05 and §§ P < 0.01 compared to healthy controls. # P < 0.05 and ## P < 0.01 compared to other DPLD. Differential counts were missing for one patient with other diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD) and one healthy control.