Video-assisted thoracic needle aspiration cytology for malignancy of the peripheral lung

The technique of video-assisted thoracic fine-needle aspiration cytology (VAT-FNA) to the lung has been described in very few publications, and its diagnostic role has not been evaluated so far. Thus current studies focus on whether the diagnostic role could be applied usefully to VAT-FNA of peripheral lung lesions.

Between January 1995 and January 2000, a total of one hundred and twenty-eight cases of VAT-FNA on lung tumors were reviewed retrospectively. The superficial lung was visualized a part of directly or indirectly by scope and a 22-gauge needle inserted for FNA. Material was expressed onto glass slides, and smears were stained by our modified quick-stain method. The cytological diagnoses based on VAT-FNA were reviewed and compared with the final histopathological diagnoses.

The cytological diagnosis was true positive in 100 cases (93.5% sensitivity), whereas the true negative result in 20 cases was 95.2% specificity. The false-positive rate was 4.8%, and false-negative results were 6.5%. The accordance in all malignant cases between cytology and histology was 73.8%. VAT-FNA caused no difficulties in any of the cases.

The application of VAT-FNA to the peripheral lung lesion is not only useful, cost-beneficial, safe and minimally invasive but also accurate. Especially, this method may play an important role in cases of suspected malignancy in peripheral cases.