Abstract

Induced sputum is a simple and non-invazive method that enables the analysis of lower respiratory tract ma - terial for different purposes. Because of its benefits for the assessment of airway inflammation, sputum in - duction is begun to be used frequently in the diagnosis and management of the disease and evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and especially bronchial asthma. Furthermore, it is accepted to be a good diagnostic procedure for the isolation of microbial agent of pulmo - nary tuberculosis and other lower respiratory tract infections, in the diagnosis of lung cancer and even in the interstitial lung diseases. Analysis of sputum induction is proven to be a safe, reliable, repeatable and use - ful method in most of the studies, and what is more important it is non-invasive and therefore its use in the routine practice is increasing.