The clinical application of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) for staging of lung cancer / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluated the role of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in the diagnosis of mediastinal lesions around the trachea.MethodsThe study was retrospective, between September 2009 to July 2010, 34 consecutive patients with enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes or mediastinal masses of unknown origin underwent EBUS-TBNA.Patients in whom EBUS-TBNA was nondiagnostic subsequently underwent surgical biopsy or a minimum of 6 months clinical and radiologic follow-up.ResultsOf the 34 patients, EBUS-TBNA achieved definitive diagnosis in 28 patients (82.4％), 10 were diagnosed as malignancies, 18 were diagnosed as benign.The sensitivity, specificity,and accuracy of EBUS-TBNA in distinguishing benign from malignant mediastinal lesions were 90.9％, 100％, and 97.1％,respectively.EBUS was well tolerated by all of the patients with no complications.ConclusionEBUS-TBNA of mediastinal lesions around the trachea is a minimally invasive safe diagnostic technique with high yield.