Since its introduction in the early 1980s, fiberoptic bronchoscopy has been used as a research tool to sample the airways in various respiratory diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Samples such as bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and endobronchial biopsies have provided important information about the pathophysiology of these chronic bronchial diseases (1). Asthma and COPD are now well recognized as inflammatory diseases that affect the airways and that are associated with airway structural changes (2). At present, noninvasive methods are extensively used to sample these diseases,