Exploratory Study of Potential Pulmonary Aspiration Markers From Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid"

This study is a single center, prospective, observational study of determining pepsin levels in BALF samples obtained from consecutive bronchoscopies at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. It is inherently an exploratory pilot study to confirm whether pepsin in BAL can act as a marker of gastric to pulmonary aspiration and whether specific association to pulmonary pathologies can be identified.

As an overview, all patients who are undergoing a bronchoscopy for clinical indications will be screened for potential participation in the study by obtaining BALF samples during the procedure for laboratory analyses. The BALF will then be tested for pepsin at the Thoracic Diseases Research Unit (Mayo Clinic Rochester) using a commercially available ELISA kit, and the ancillary markers will be analyzed per the clinical laboratory. Internal controls will be defined as normals when subjects have no lung dysfunction, no respiratory symptoms, and no lung parenchymal infiltrates on chest radiographs.

The primary aims of this project parallels the short-term hypotheses stated above:

1. Confirm pepsin can be detected and quantitated in BALF obtained during a routine bronchoscopy.
2. Identify specific pulmonary pathologies that are more often associated with increased pepsin BAL levels.
3. Identify a normal range of pepsin in BALF in control normals.
4. Identify any correlation of pepsin BAL levels with reflux, swallow, or respiratory symptoms (standardized questionnaires).
5. Identify any correlation between pepsin BAL levels and lung function test or radiographic abnormalities.

Secondary aims of the study will include exploratory analyses of lesser defined potential aspiration markers including bilirubin, lipase, amylase, and pepsinogen. Analyses of these markers will parallel the analyses performed for pepsin.