Abstract
AIM: Endobronchial cryobiopsy (EC) is a technique that obtains high quality specimens in patients with endobronchial tumours. The aim of our study was to evaluate the usefulness of EC in patients with a previous non-diagnostic sample obtained by means of conventional forceps biopsy (FB).
PATIENTS AND METHODS:We included patients with an endobronchial tumour and a previous non-diagnostic conventional FB who underwent EC in two institutions from 2009 to 2013. Patients characteristics, sample adequacy, final diagnoses and procedure complication rate were analyzed.
RESULTS:
14 patients were included (10 men) with a mean age of 65.57 yrs (SD 13.4). All patients had a previous non-diagnostic bronchoscopy (range 1-3). EC attained a histological diagnosis in 13 patients (92.8%). Minimum complications were recorded: one case of pneumotorax and a moderate endobronchial bleeding. The mean specimen area of the biopsies obtained by EC was significantly larger than those obtained by FB
. The percentage of crush artefact was lower in biopsies obtainted by EC (difference statistically non-significant). The frozen of the sample did not interfere with the inmunohistochemical stainings or molecular techniques.
CONCLUSIONS:
EC obtained high quality samples that allowed histological diagnoses in most of the patients (92.8%) with a previous non-diagnostic FB. No fatal complications were recorded.
- © 2014 ERS