Comparative Analysis of Results of Transbronchial Needle Aspiration Biopsy of Mediastinal Lymph Nodes with Flexible and Rigid Tracheobronchoscopy for Verification of Mediastinal Lymphadenopathies

Abstract

The objective: to analyze results of TBNA for diagnosis of mediastinal lymphadenopathy performed with flexible and rigid tracheobronchoscopy with needles of different diameters.Subjects and Methods. We analyzed data of 194 patients who underwent TBNA with fibrobronchoscopy (Group 1) or rigid bronchoscopy (Group 2) for mediastinal lymphadenopathy of uncertain etiology.Results. The overall diagnostic efficacy of the biopsy was 90,7%, while in case of tumors, the sensitivity was 89,5% and specificity was 97,5%, in case of respiratory sarcoidosis, they were 92,5% and 85,9%, respectively. Better diagnostic efficacy rates were observed in Group 1 (flexible bronchoscopy with 19G puncture needles) versus Group 2 (rigid bronchoscopy with 16G puncture needles) which may be due to the small number of biopsies in Group 2.

Keywords

• mediastinal lymphadenopathy
• lymph node biopsy
• tracheobronchoscopy
• mediastinal puncture
• tbna