Effects of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Improve Volume of Diagnostic Material in CT-Guided Lung Biopsies.

Background: Recent publications have emphasized the importance of a multidisciplinary strategy for maximum conservation and utilization of lung biopsy material for advanced testing, which may determine therapy. This paper quantifies the effect of a multidisciplinary strategy implemented to optimize and increase tissue volume in CT-guided transthoracic needle core lung biopsies. The strategy was three-pronged: (1) once there was confidence diagnostic tissue had been obtained and if safe for the patient, additional biopsy passes were performed to further increase volume of biopsy material, (2) biopsy material was placed in multiple cassettes for processing, and (3) all tissue ribbons were conserved when cutting blocks in the histology laboratory.