Brief communication
The role of transtracheal aspiration in the diagnosis of respiratory infection in neutropenic patients with acute Leukaemia

https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2126(81)90075-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Transtracheal aspiration (TTA) has been used to obtain a bacteriological diagnosis in neutroponic patients with suspected chest infection.

It was performed during 53 pyrexial episodes in neutropenic or immuno-suppressed patients. The procedure was well tolerated with few complications. Bacteria were isolated from 29 out of 53 transtracheal aspirates (56%) and in a majority of these patients the sputum was either negative or unobtainable. The result of this investigation influenced the choice of antibiotics in many cases. The high diagnostic yield of this simple test suggests that it should be used more frequently in the diagnosis of chest infection in neutropenic patients.

References (6)

  • J.S. Tobias et al.

    Bacterial infection and acute myeloblastic leukaemia

    Eur. J. Cancer

    (1978)
  • J.G. Bartlet

    Diagnostic accuracy of transtracheal aspiration bacteriologic studies

    Am. Rev. resp. Dis.

    (1977)
  • G.P. Bodey et al.

    Fever and infection in leukemic patients

    Cancer

    (1978)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text