Histological interpretation of transbronchial biopsies

ABSTRACT

A clincopathological study of 100 consecutive transbronchial biopsies is presented. These biopsies were taken from 82 males and 18 females. The age of the patients varied from 16 years to 85 year. Fifty eight patients were clinically suspected to be suffering from carcinoma lung, whereas tuberculosis was provisional diagnosis in 15 patients, the differential diagnosis included both tuberculosis and malignancy. The histology revealed malignancy in 44 patients, whereas tuberculosis was diagnosed in only 6 patients. Acute on chronic non-specific inflammation was present in 32 biopsies. The sampling was adequate in almost all the cases except 5 biopsies which were insufficient for an opinion. In cases of malignancies the positive tissue diagnosis was 61%, but in cases of suspected pulmonary tuberculosis the histological diagnosis was only 20%. These findings suggest that transbronchial biopsy is a fairly reliable method for diagnosis of carcinomalung, whereas for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis, bacteriological studies should supplement the transbronchial biopsies