Diagnostic yield of fluorescence-assisted frame-based stereotactic biopsies of intracerebral lesions in comparison with frozen-section analysis.

Purpose: Stereotactic biopsies are routinely used to establish a histological diagnosis of unclear cerebral pathologies. Intraoperatively, frozen-section analysis often confirms diagnostic tissue but also exhibits methodological pitfalls. Intraoperative five-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-fluorescence has been described not only in gliomas but also in other cerebral pathologies. In this study, we assessed the 5-ALA contribution to the intraoperative confirmation of diagnostic tissue in frame-based stereotactic biopsies of unclear intracerebral lesions in direct comparison with frozen-section analysis.

Methods: Patients scheduled for stereotactic biopsies of unclear intracerebral pathologies received 5-ALA preoperatively. Obtained samples were intraoperatively analyzed for the presence of 5-ALA-fluorescence. One sample was used for frozen-section and a second one for permanent histopathological analysis. The diagnostic yield of frozen-section and intraoperative 5-ALA-fluorescence was calculated. The inclusion criteria for this retrospective analysis were unclear intracerebral lesions with inconclusive imaging findings and several differential diagnoses.

Results: A total of 39 patients with 122 obtained specimens were included. The overall diagnostic yield was 92.3%. 5-ALA-positive samples were obtained in 74.3% (29/39) of patients and all these samples contained diagnostic tissue. 5-ALA-fluorescence confirmed diagnostic tissue with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 27%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 78%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. A clear diagnosis could be predicted by frozen section with a sensitivity of 80%, a specificity of 100%, a PPV of 100%, and NPV of 30%; Fisher's exact test p = 0.01.

Conclusion: The 5-ALA-fluorescence in stereotactic biopsies of unclear intracerebral pathologies exhibits a high PPV/NPV for intraoperative confirmation of diagnostic tissue and might increase the diagnostic yield of the procedure by overcoming some of the limitations of frozen-section.