Evaluating the efficacy of percutaneous puncture biopsy guided by contrast-enhanced ultrasound for peripheral pulmonary lesions.

Background: The incidence and mortality of lung cancer have increased annually. Accurate diagnosis can help improve therapeutic efficacy of interventions and prognosis. Percutaneous lung biopsy is a reliable method for the clinical diagnosis of lung cancer. Ultrasound-guided percutaneous lung biopsy technology has been widely promoted and applied in recent years.

Aim: To investigate the diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS)-guided percutaneous biopsy in peripheral pulmonary lesions.

Methods: We retrospectively collected data on 237 patients with peripheral thoracic focal lesions who underwent puncture biopsy at Wuxi People's Hospital. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: The CEUS-guided before lesion puncture group (contrast group) and conventional ultrasound-guided group (control group). Analyze the diagnostic efficacy of the puncture biopsy, impact of tumor size, and number of puncture needles and complications were analyzed and compared between the two groups.

Results: Accurate pathological results were obtained for 92.83% (220/237) of peripheral lung lesions during the first biopsy, with an accuracy rate of 95.8% (113/118) in the contrast group and 89.9% (107/119) in the control group. The difference in the area under the curve (AUC) between the contrast and the control groups was not statistically significant (0.952 0.902, respectively; > 0.05). However, when the lesion diameter ≥ 5 cm, the diagnostic AUC of the contrast group was higher than that of the control group (0.952 0.902, respectively; < 0.05). In addition, the average number of puncture needles in the contrast group was lower than that in the control group (2.58 ± 0.53 2.90 ± 0.56, respectively; < 0.05).

Conclusion: CEUS guidance can enhance the efficiency of puncture biopsy of peripheral pulmonary lesions, especially for lesions with a diameter ≥ 5 cm. Therefore, CEUS guidance has high clinical diagnostic value in puncture biopsy of peripheral focal lung lesions.