Yield Of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy Research Articles

Diagnostic experience of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in al-azhar university hospital

Background Fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) is an endoscopic technique for visualizing the inside of the airway for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. FB is a simple, useful examination suitable for investigation without general anesthesia. Aim We aimed to report our 5-year experience with the diagnostic yield of FB at the Al-Azhar University Hospital. Patients and methods A retrospective review of bronchoscopy reports was performed at the Chest Department, El-Hussein University Hospital, Al-Azhar University, during the 5 years from January 2012 to December 2016. Data collected were encoded into MS Excel 2017 for windows XP professional. Age was presented as mean. Due to the descriptive nature of this study; all other data were presented as percentage. The calculation was done using Excel. Results Bronchoscopy was successful for giving a final diagnosis in 275 (78.6%) patients out of 350 patients. Of these, 190 patients were men and 160 patients were women. Malignancies were diagnosed in 66.3% of cases; tuberculosis was diagnosed in 2.8%; and interstitial lung diseases were diagnosed in 3.7% of cases. Conclusion FB can be performed easily in hospitals with appropriate preparation, observation, and attachment to protocol. This study confirms that FB is a valuable diagnostic tool, with low cost and low rates of complication, particularly in patients with lung cancer. Bronchoscopists face many challenges to reach the correct diagnosis of peripheral lung diseases. Some diagnostic bronchoscopies fail to reach the diagnosis, so bronchoscopy can be repeated or search for other diagnostic modalities. Bronchoscopy, performed under local anesthesia in the endoscopy suite, gives a solution in most cases with minimal complications. Recommendation Every pulmonologist should be aware and well trained in bronchoscopy.

Diagnostic Yield of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy for the Evaluation of Chronic Cough in Patients with Normal Chest X-Ray

Diagnostic Yield of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy for the Evaluation of Chronic Cough in Patients with Normal Chest X-Ray

Diagnostic yield of fiber optic bronchoscopy in alveolar and/or ground glass opacification in chest computed tomographic scan

Background and objectiveTransbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) can be obtained using forceps and usually represents the centrilobular regions. Therefore, disorders that are centered around terminal and respiratory bronchioles or distributed along the lymphatic routes can be diagnosed. This study investigated the diagnostic yield of flexible bronchoscopy in patients with ground-glass opacity (GGO) or alveolar filling for histopathological diagnosis and found out its complications.Patients and methodsTwenty-six patients with predominant GGO or alveolar opacity in the chest computed tomographic (CT) scan were submitted for TBLB for histopathological confirmation. Patients with respiratory failure, heart failure, coagulopathy, or pathognomonic CT patterns were excluded. All patients were subjected to full history taking, chest CT scan, and TBLB with histopathological examination of the specimens.ResultsThe diagnostic yield of TBLB was 73.1%. Histopathological diagnoses included hypersensitivity pneumonitis (23.1%), sarcoidosis (19.2%), adenocarcinoma (11.5%), small cell lung cancer (7.7%), alveolar proteinosis (3.8%), alveolar hemorrhage (3.8%), organizing pneumonia (3.8%), and chronic nonspecific inflammation (26.9%). There was no significant correlation between age, sex, smoking, and histopathological diagnoses. Regarding the predominant CT finding, 15 (57.7%) patients had GGO, whereas 11 (42.3%) patients had alveolar filling with significant (P=0.008) positive correlation between the CT predominant pattern and histopathological diagnoses. There was a positive significant correlation between lymph node enlargement in CT and histopathological diagnosis (P=0.029). Complications from TBLB included the pneumothorax (15.4%) and bleeding (7.7%).ConclusionsTBLB seems to be a useful and safe procedure. It is of a high diagnostic value. Therefore, it could be considered a routine diagnostic procedure before thoracoscopic or open lung biopsy.

Role of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary infiltrates in patients with hematological malignancies

RationalePatients with hematological malignancies are a special challenge to health care providers as they undergo a wide variety of immune-suppressive therapies. Both disease and therapy can cause complications. The lungs may be directly injured through infectious or toxic insults. Early identification of the nature of infiltrates will result in better outcome in the management of these patients. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) may be a good tool for indentifying the infiltrate nature by using different diagnostic techniques like transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).Patients and methodsThis study was performed over 6 months, in Kasr Al-Aini Hospital, Cairo University. It included 30 patients with hematological malignancies presenting with pulmonary infiltrates confirmed by computed tomography of the chest. All patients underwent history taking, clinical examination, and investigations included complete blood count and coagulation profile, BAL for culture and sensitivity, cytology examination, and TBLB.ResultsOverall diagnostic yield of FOB was 73.3% in this study. The diagnostic yield of FOB was higher for infectious (43.3%) than both noninfectious (20%) and mixed (10%) etiologies. The combined diagnostic yield of BAL for bacteriological examination and TBLB was higher than that of BAL for cytology examination. Bacteriological examination revealed a predominance for gram-negative bacteria in 62.5% of total culture and sensitivity.ConclusionThis study supports the role of FOB as the initial procedure of choice for identifying the nature of pulmonary infiltrates in patients with hematological malignancies. Because our results suggest that BAL and TBLB are complementary, we recommend performing TBLB whenever it is deemed safe. On the contrary, cytological examination of BAL fluids was not helpful in reaching a final diagnosis.

Diagnostic Yield of Fiber Optic Bronchoscopy and CECT Thorax in Patients of Haemoptysis with Normal Chest X-Ray

Introduction: Contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) thorax & Fibre Optic Bronchoscopy (FOB) are main investigations in patients of hemoptysis with normal chest X-ray. But there are limited data on their diagnostic yield especially from South East Asia. Methods : An observational study on 60 patients with hemoptysis with normal chest X -ray was conducted from April 2012 to April 2014. CECT thorax and FOB were done in all of them. Results : Out of 60 patients 38 (63.3%) were male with even age distribution. Yield of CECT was 40% (24 patients) and main diagnosis were bronchiectesis (25%) and tuberculosis (11.6%). Diagnostic yield of FOB was 47% (28 patients) with predominant diagnosis of tuberculosis (18.33%), bronchitis (18.33%) and bronchogenic carcinoma (6.66%). Overall diagnostic yield was 76.6% (46 cases). Bronchogenic carcinoma cases were all male smokers and 3 of them were more than 40 years old. Conclusion : CECT thorax and FOB are complimentary to each other in evaluation of hemoptysis with normal chest x-ray. Bronchogenic carcinoma and tuberculosis cases require specific treatment and they were diagnosed in confirm way only by FOB. So, FOB have advantage over CT scan, especially among patients with increased risk of bronchogenic carcinoma (male-smokers with age > 40 years).

Yield of bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of neoplasm metastatic to lung

The yield of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) in the diagnosis of pulmonary metastases has not been conveniently analyzed. With the advances in the surgery of pulmonary metastases, there is a need to evaluate the diagnostic yield and the usefulness of FB to exclude other diseases with similar radiological patterns. To determine the value of FB in the diagnosis of pulmonary metastases we have retrospectively analyzed our experience in 113 patients with proven pulmonary metastases. An endobronchial lesion was identified in 57/113 (50.4%). The most frequent tumors with endobronchial lesions were thyroid (100%), head–neck (67%) and breast carcinomas (59%). The highest diagnostic yield was obtained combining techniques of brushing, washing and biopsy (72.6%); in cases with endobronchial lesions (84.2%) and with certain histological types (head–neck 100%; breast 90.9% and colon 84.6%). The most frequent radiological findings were single or multiple nodules (77.9%). Atelectasis were associated with endobronchial lesions. In conclusion, bronchoscopy is a valuable diagnostic procedure in selected patients with metastatic lung disease.

Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy for Refractory Cough

Fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) has a low yield in the diagnosis of chronic cough (greater than 3 weeks) in unselected patients. We assessed the yield of FB for cough during a four-year period in patients with nonlocalizing chest roentgenograms who were refractory to diagnostic efforts and empiric bronchodilator or antitussive therapy. Seven (28 percent) of 25 patients undergoing FB for cough (of greater than 1,500 bronchoscopies) had diagnostic findings (broncholithiasis, two; tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica, two; and tuberculous bronchostenosis, laryngeal dyskinesia, and arytenoid polyp, one each). No tracheobronchial neoplasms were detected. Age greater than 50 years and female sex independently predicted positive results (p = 0.02 Fisher's exact test), while duration of cough (two to 240 months), airflow, and smoking status did not. When patients with prior pulmonary or extrathoracic neoplasms were excluded, seven (35 percent) of 20 studies were diagnostic. Diagnoses potentially could have been made by thoracic computed tomographic scanning in four patients and indirect laryngoscopy in two. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy has a respectable yield for diagnosis of refractory chronic cough and is a reasonable procedure in carefully selected patients.

The Role of Fiberoptic Bronchoscopy in Evaluating the Causes of Pleural Effusions

To evaluate the diagnostic merit of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in pleural effusions, we performed fiberoptic bronchoscopy in addition to thoracocentesis and closed pleural biopsy in 140 patients who were admitted for diagnostic investigation of the causes of pleural effusions. The patients were divided into subgroups based on clinical features and roentgenographic findings of chest x-ray films. In 39 patients, the pleural effusions were due to various nonneoplastic disorders and in 95 patients it was caused by malignancy. In six patients, the causes of the pleural effusions remained undetermined. A final diagnosis was made by pleural examination in 68 patients, by fiberoptic bronchoscopy in 58 patients, and by either one or both in 100 patients. In 82 patients who had no hemoptysis, a final diagnosis was made by pleural examination in 57 cases and by fiberoptic bronchoscopy in 11 cases only. The diagnostic yield of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (47/58) was superior to that of pleural examination (11/58) in 58 patients presenting with hemoptysis. In 74 patients who had pleural effusions as the sole roentgenographic abnormality, the final entity was established by pleural examination in 45 and by fiberoptic bronchoscopy in 12. The diagnostic merit of fiberoptic bronchoscopy was significantly higher in 59 patients who had concurrent pulmonary abnormalities on their chest roentgenograms. A final diagnosis was made in 43 cases by fiberoptic bronchoscopy in comparison with 21 cases by pleural examination. For patients with unknown pleural effusions, fiberoptic bronchoscopy was more likely to yield a diagnosis than thoracocentesis with closed pleural biopsy in those who had hemoptysis or pulmonary abnormality on chest x-ray films, whereas the reverse applied when these features were absent.