Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration for the diagnosis of intrapulmonary lesions.

Background: The diagnosis of centrally located intrapulmonary tumors not visible on bronchoscopy may be a challenge. Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) has been shown to be useful for the evaluation of mediastinal lymph nodes. However, there have been no reports of the utility of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of intrapulmonary tumors.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of intrapulmonary tumors located adjacent to the central airway.

Methods: From December 2002 to June 2007, 35 patients with pulmonary masses located close to the central airways were accessed by EBUS-TBNA. Conventional bronchoscopic biopsy before EBUS-TBNA was nondiagnostic in 25 of the 35 cases. Patients with endobronchial lesions were excluded from this study.

Results: EBUS-TBNA was performed in 19 peritracheal and 16 peribronchial lesions. Cytologic and/or histologic samples were diagnostic in 33 of 35 patients. The final diagnoses of the pulmonary masses were lung cancer in 26 cases (1 small cell lung cancer, 25 non-small cell lung cancer), metastatic lung tumors in 5, and BALT lymphoma in one. The sensitivity and the diagnostic accuracy of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of unknown pulmonary masses was 94.1% and 94.3%, respectively.

Conclusions: Intrapulmonary lesions not assessable by conventional bronchoscopic procedures can easily be assessed and diagnosed by EBUS-TBNA as long as it is within the reach of the EBUS-TBNA scope. EBUS-TBNA is a real-time procedure with a high yield which can be applied for the diagnosis of lung tumors.