Murdoch DR
Morpeth SC
Hammitt LL
Driscoll AJ
Watson NL
Baggett HC
Brooks WA
Deloria Knoll M
Feikin DR
Kotloff KL
Levine OS
Madhi SA
O'Brien KL
Scott JAG
Thea DM
Ahmed D
Awori JO
DeLuca AN
Ebruke BE
Higdon MM
Jorakate P
Karron RA
Kazungu S
Kwenda G
Hossain L
Makprasert S
Moore DP
Mudau A
Mwaba J
Panchalingam S
Park DE
Prosperi C
Salaudeen R
Toure A
Zeger SL
Howie SRC
Perch Study Group
Clin Infect Dis. 2017;64S271-S279
BACKGROUND. It is standard practice for laboratories to assess the cellular quality of expectorated sputum specimens to check that they originated from the lower respiratory tract. The presence of low numbers of squamous epithelial cells (SECs) and high numbers of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells are regarded as indicative of a lower respiratory tract specimen. However, these quality ratings have never been evaluated for induced sputum specimens from children with suspected pneumonia. METHODS. We evaluated induced sputum Gram stain smears and cultures from hospitalized children aged 1-59 months enrolled in a large study of community-acquired pneumonia. We hypothesized that a specimen representative of the lower respiratory tract will contain smaller quantities of oropharyngeal flora and be more likely to have a predominance of potential pathogens compared to a specimen containing mainly saliva. The prevalence of potential pathogens cultured from induced sputum specimens and quantity of oropharyngeal flora were compared for different quantities of SECs and PMNs. RESULTS. Of 3772 induced sputum specimens, 2608 (69%) had <10 SECs per low-power field (LPF) and 2350 (62%) had >25 PMNs per LPF, measures traditionally associated with specimens from the lower respiratory tract in adults. Using isolation of low quantities of oropharyngeal flora and higher prevalence of potential pathogens as markers of higher quality, <10 SECs per LPF (but not >25 PMNs per LPF) was the microscopic variable most associated with high quality of induced sputum. CONCLUSIONS. Quantity of SECs may be a useful quality measure of induced sputum from young children with pneumonia.
