EUS-guided transesophageal fine-needle biopsy sampling of lung masses: diagnostic performance and safety

Abstract

Background and aims: Pulmonary masses are a diagnostic challenge in the field of EUS tissue acquisition, especially through transesophageal EUS-guided fine-needle biopsy sampling (EUS-FNB). Our study evaluated the feasibility, diagnostic performance, and safety of EUS-FNB of pulmonary lesions.

Methods: Fifty-three patients were enrolled in a prospective registry. All EUS procedures were performed by experienced endosonographers. Outcomes were specimen adequacy, diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic sensibility, diagnostic specificity, and safety.

Results: The mean patient age was 70 ± 10.4 years, and 71.7% were men. The mean lesion size was 52.4 ± 23.3 mm, and patients mostly had a single lesion (86.8%). Most patients had an advanced stage at diagnosis (stage IV, 41.82%), and the most common lung cancer was non-small cell lung carcinoma (69.4%). The diagnostic adequacy rate was 92.86%, and diagnostic accuracy was 87.5%. Adverse events were reported in 3 procedures.

Conclusions: Transesophageal EUS-FNB is a feasible and safe diagnostic method of tissue sampling for lung masses reachable by EUS.