Liran Levy, Sajad Moshkelgosha, Ella Huszti, Sarah Hunter, Benjamin Renaud-Picard, Gregory Berra, Mitsuaki Kawashima, Juan Fernandez-Castillo, Eyal Fuchs, Milagros Dianti, Rasheed Ghany, Shaf Keshavjee, Lianne G Singer, Jussi Tikkanen, Tereza Martinu
BACKGROUND: Airway epithelial injury is thought to be a key event in the pathogenesis of chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD). We investigated whether markers of epithelial activity and injury in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) correlate with CLAD diagnosis and major CLAD phenotypes: bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) vs. restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS)-related phenotypes (including RAS, mixed phenotype, and all other patients with RAS-like opacities). METHODS: CLAD status and phenotypes were retrospectively determined in a cohort of all consecutive adult, first, bilateral lung transplants performed 2010-2015, with available BAL samples...
March 22, 2023: Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation