Some factors influencing quality of spontaneous or induced sputum for inflammatory cell analysis

To find some simple clinical factors which can predict the quality of the sputum samples obtained in a large group of asthmatic subjects.We compared the presence of sputum productive cough in the days preceding the test, easiness in expectoration during the test, and sputum macroscopic aspect (presence of visible plugs) with the quality of slides obtained from sputum processing. We also monitored changes in the quality in patients who repeated...