P. Suresh1
BACKGROUND
The quest for accurate diagnosis of lung pathology has been there all through the history of medicine. The pathologist is the person who makes the final diagnosis, but submission of the lesion to the pathologist involves procedures, both invasive and noninvasive like Open Lung Biopsy (OLB), Percutaneous Transthoracic Needle Biopsy (PTNB) and Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC). Percutaneous nonoperative procedures in the chest were performed even before the advent of imaging. Leyden performed the first transthoracic needle lung biopsy in 1882 to confirm pulmonary infection.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a hospital-based observational study of CT-guided interventional procedures in patients with thoracic lesions diagnosed by imaging methods like chest radiograph, CT or MRI scans. These patients were referred to the Department of Radiodiagnosis for CT-guided thoracic interventions from the Chest Medicine Department and other clinical departments of our hospital (The Oxford Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre). The duration of the study was for a period of 18 months from November 2015 to May 2017.
RESULTS
Yield of CT-guided fine needle aspiration cytology of thoracic lesions in this study was 28.57% with a failure rate of 71.43%.
Yield of CT-guided core needle biopsy of thoracic lesions in this study was 100% with no failure rate.
CONCLUSION
Percutaneous CT-guided interventions like core biopsy and fine needle aspiration cytology are relatively simple minimally-invasive procedures with good patient acceptance, low morbidity and almost negligible mortality.
