The following is a summary of “EBUS-guided cryobiopsy in the diagnosis of thoracic disorders,” published in the January 2024 issue of Pulmonology by Poletti et al.
Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) has become a vital tool for diagnosing intrathoracic disorders, particularly in lung cancer staging. However, its diagnostic efficacy in benign and rare diseases remains uncertain.
To investigate the diagnostic yield and safety of EBUS-transbronchial mediastinal cryobiopsy (EBUS-TMC) compared to EBUS-transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) across a spectrum of intrathoracic diseases.
This single-center retrospective observational study included 48 patients who underwent both EBUS-TBNA and EBUS-TMC during the same procedure between August 2021 and October 2023.
EBUS-TMC demonstrated a higher overall diagnostic yield compared to EBUS-TBNA (95.8% vs. 54.1%), particularly excelling in diagnosing sarcoidosis (92.8% vs. 78.5%), rare mediastinal disorders (100% vs. 0%), hyperplastic lymphadenopathy (100% vs. 0%), and lymphoproliferative disease (100% vs. 0%). No significant differences were observed in diagnosing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Samples obtained through EBUS-TMC facilitated easier acquisition of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and immunohistochemical analyses.
EBUS-TMC holds promise for precise diagnosis and subtyping of mediastinal diseases, particularly lymphomas and rare mediastinal tumors, potentially reducing the number of non-diagnostic procedures.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2531043723002234