Clinical value of autofluorescence bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of central lung cancer

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the benefit of using autofluorescence bronchoscopy (AFB) to detect early central lung cancer.Methods A total of 161 cases of suspected lung cancer were detected with AFB and white light bronchoscopy (WLB).Pathologic diagnosis as lung cancer,and moderate and severe atypical hyperplasia were defined as positive.Normal bronchial mucosa,mucosal hyperplasia,pachymucosa,and chronic inflammation of the mucosa were defined as negative.The sensitivity and specificity of WLB,AFB,and WLB + AFI imaging in the detection of lung cancer were compared to analyze the abnormal appearance of AFB and WLB.Results The sensitivity and specificity were 63.6％ and 77.0％ for WLB imaging,96.9％ and 16.0％ for AFB imaging,and 76.7％ and 59.4％ for combination of WLB and AFB imaging.No significant difference in the sensitivity was found between WLB and WLB + AFB imaging (P =0.06),but there was significant difference in the specificity between WLB and WLB + AFB imaging (P=0.01).Significant difference in the sensitivity and specificity was found between WLB + AFB and AFB imaging (P ＜ 0.001).Conclusions AFB was more sensitive than WLB in detection of centre lung cancer.Combination of WLB and AFB improved the specificity of AFB alone. Key words: Bronchoscopy/methods; Fluorescence ; Lung neoplasms/diagnosis