Computed Tomography Correlation of Thoracic Lesions with Transthoracic Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology And Biopsy

Abstract

Introduction: The study is an attempt to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, p-value, and complications of CT guided thoracic interventions fine needle aspiration cytology and core biopsy, which are used for diagnosing benign and malignant thoracic lesions. Material and Methods: The study included 102 patients (87 males and 15 females) with age group ranged from 15 to 87 years. A total of 143 CT guided interventions (84 FNAC’s and 59 core biopsies) were performed in 102 patients. The tissue obtained was sent to the laboratory for histopathological and cytological analysis for a final diagnosis, which would contribute to patient management. Results: A ll 5 9 c ore b iopsies w ere s uccessful i n p rocuring adequate tissue for histopathological analysis and the yield of core biopsies was 100%. However, out of 84 FNAC’s, only four were unsuccessful in procuring adequate tissue with a failure rate of 4.8%. Postprocedural biopsy complications were only three (2.1%), which were small pneumothorax. There were 75 malignant lesions and 23 benign lesions based on cytology, and histopathology (4 were excluded due to inadequate sample). There was good agreement between benign and malignant lesions diagnosed on CT and that diagnosed by pathology. The most common benign and malignant lesions were granulomatous lesion and squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusion: Percutaneous CT guided interventions like core biopsy and fine-needle aspiration cytology are simple minimally invasive procedures with good patient acceptance and low morbidity and almost negligible mortality. CT guided interventions should be performed early for diagnosis of thoracic lesions.