Bronchoscopy is used in the diagnosis of pneumonia only in certain cases, such as patients admitted in the ICU, immunocompromised patients, or patients with treatment failure.
When sputum is not produced or not sufficient for evaluation, bronchoscopic sampling and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is used to collect samples for gram stain and culture.[1]
Bronchoscopy is particularly helpful in the diagnosis of PCP, as the sputum analysis have a high false-negative rate. [2]
↑Mandell, L. A.; Wunderink, R. G.; Anzueto, A.; Bartlett, J. G.; Campbell, G. D.; Dean, N. C.; Dowell, S. F.; File, T. M.; Musher, D. M.; Niederman, M. S.; Torres, A.; Whitney, C. G. (2007). "Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society Consensus Guidelines on the Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Adults". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 44 (Supplement 2): S27–S72. doi:10.1086/511159. ISSN1058-4838.