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Published on: May 23, 2015
Diagnostic yield of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in evaluating solitary pulmonary nodules
W A Baaklini1, M A Reinoso, A B Gorin
1Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Wbaaklini@aol.com
Study Objectives:
To evaluate factors affecting the diagnostic yield of flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in evaluating solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs).
Design:
Retrospective analysis of bronchoscopies performed over a 4-year period.
Setting:
A tertiary teaching hospital.
Patients:
One hundred seventy-seven patients with pulmonary nodules without endobronchial lesions who underwent bronchoscopy with brushing, washing, and transbronchial biopsy.
Results:
There were 151 malignant and 26 benign lesions. The diagnostic accuracy of bronchoscopy in malignant and benign lesions were 64% (97 of 151) and 35% (9 of 26), respectively. The yield of bronchoscopy was directly related to lesion size (p < 0.001, chi(2)). When lesions were grouped according to distance from the hilum, yields of bronchoscopy in central, intermediate, and peripherally located lesions were 82, 61, and 53%, respectively (p = 0.05, chi(2)). When we stratified distance from the hilum by lesion size, the difference in yield was not significant. However, lesions
Conclusions:
Size is the strongest determinant of diagnostic yield in bronchoscopy when evaluating SPNs. The yield of bronchoscopy is particularly low in lesions
