Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Transesophageal Fine-Needle Biopsy of Lung Masses: Diagnostic Performance and Safety

Abstract

Pulmonary masses are a diagnostic challenge in the field of endoscopic ultrasound(EUS) tissue acquisition, especially through transesophageal EUS-FNB(fine needle biopsy). Our study evaluated the feasibility, diagnostic performance, and safety of EUS-FNB of pulmonary lesions. Fifty-three patients were enrolled in a prospective registry. All of the EUS procedures were performed by experienced endosonographers. Outcomes were specimen adequacy, diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic sensibility, diagnostic specificity, and safety. The mean age was 70±10.4, and 71.7% were male. The mean lesion size was 52.4±23.3 mm, and patients had mostly a single lesion(86.8%). Most of the patients had advanced stage at diagnosis(stage IV, 41.82%), and the most common lung cancer was non-small cell lung carcinoma(69.4%). Diagnostic adequacy rate was 92.86%, and diagnostic accuracy was 87.5%. Adverse events were reported in 3 procedures. Transesophageal EUS-FNB is a feasible and safe diagnostic method of tissue sampling for lung masses reachable by EUS.