This study was conducted with 132 brocho alveolar lavage (BAL) samples over the period of 2 years.The age group of patients ranged from 16 years to 80 years and the maximum numbers of cases were found in the age group of 51-60 years, comprising a total of 31.8% of the (42 cases) study population. Breathlessness and haemoptysis were present in equal number of cases (41 cases, 31.1%). Out of 132 BAL smears studied the diagnosis of malignancy was given in 36 (27.2%) cases, dysplasia in 20 (15.2%) cases and 52 (39.4%) cases were diagnosed as non neoplastic inflammatory lesions. The sample was inadequate to evaluate in 24 cases. Histopathological correlation was available for 45 cases in which 30 (66.7%) cases were diagnosed as malignant lesions, 5 (11.1%) cases were dysplastic and 10 (22.2%) cases were non neoplastic inflammatory lesions. Out of the total 132 BAL cases, 110 cases (83.3%) were males and 22 cases (16.7%) females (Fig 1). Male: Female ratio was 5:1. Out of the 45 biopsy samples studied 41 were males and 4 were females. Among the 30 cases, 22 cases were smokers and males. The remaining 6 males and 2 females were non smokers. Out of the 45 cases studied 30 cases (66.7%) were malignant lesions, 5 were dysplastic (11.1%) and 10 (22.2%) were non neoplastic lesions. Among males, there were 28 (68.3%) cases of malignant lesions, 5(12.3%) cases of dysplastic lesions and 8(19.5%) cases of inflammatory lesions). Among females, there were equal number of cases of malignant (2 cases) and non neoplastic lesions (2 cases). It is observed that there was no significant association between distribution of malignant lesion and sex of the patient. In the present study of 45 cases, the cytological diagnosis of malignancy was made in 19 cases, among them 18 cases were proved as malignancy in histopathology (True positive).
