Criteria and methods of etiological diagnosis of acute and chronic inflammatory processes in the lungs

: The clinical, bacteriological, cytological, serological and allergological data were analyzed in 376 patients with acute pneumonia and chronic bronchitis to study the diagnostic importance of the microorganisms isolated from the sputum. The informativeness of the methods was estimated by correlation of the appropriate data with the data of the final verified diagnosis of the inflammatory process in the lungs. Bacterioscopy of the sputum smear stained according to Gram, bioassay on mice, determination of bacterial concentration per ml sputum, allergic tests with bacterial allergens were found to be the most reliable methods as regards the etiological diagnosis of acute pneumonias. It should be mentioned that bacterioscopy is an early criterion of the disease etiology. Criteria of the etiological significance of bacteria which cause exacerbation of chronic bronchitis encompass the measurement of bacterial concentration per ml sputum, indirect immunofluorescence with autostrains of the isolated bacteria and the bioassay. Early criteria include the first two methods.