Comparison of diagnostic yield and safety of endobronchial ultrasound-guided mediastinal lymph nodal cryobiopsy and endobronchial ultrasound-guided Franseen tip needle biopsy.

Abstract

In this prospective study, we evaluated the diagnostic yield and safety of two endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) biopsy techniques - mediastinal cryobiopsy (EBUS-MCB) and Franseen tip needle biopsy (EBUS-ANB) - in patients with undiagnosed mediastinal lymphadenopathy. The study included 30 patients who underwent both EBUS-MCB and EBUS-ANB, with four biopsies taken from each patient using both methods. The results demonstrated that EBUS-MCB provided a higher diagnostic yield (96.4%) compared to EBUS-ANB (73.3%). Specimens from EBUS-MCB showed fewer artifacts and a higher density of granulomas and were adequate for ancillary studies in all cases. The most common complication observed was minor bleeding, which was more common with EBUS-MCB (36.6% versus 13.3%, p=0.04). This study demonstrates that EBUS-guided cryobiopsy has a higher diagnostic yield when compared to EBUS-guided Franseen tip needle biopsy and that both biopsy techniques have an acceptable safety profile. Larger studies comparing these two techniques are necessary to confirm the findings of the current study.