Pancreatic fine needle aspiration. A comparison of computed tomographic and endoscopic ultrasonographic guidance

To compare the sensitivity and specificity of pancreatic fine needle aspiration (FNA) with computed tomography (CT) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guidance.

A 6-year retrospective review included 137 pancreatic FNAs (CT 51, magnetic resonance imaging 2 or EUS 84). Clinical or histologic follow-up was available for 110 patients.

Positive (POS), suspicious (SUS), atypical, negative and unsatisfactory (UNSAT) results represented 25.5%, 7.3%, 7.3%, 40.1% and 19.1% of reported diagnoses, respectively. In detecting malignancy, the sensitivities of POS/SUS results were 71% and 42% for CT and EUS, respectively, with negative predictive value (NPV) of 41% and 45%. Also, 35% of UNSAT results were found to have malignancy. However, EUS was used on more difficult lesions, including 82% of small, cystic ones and 75% of small, solid ones.

Although the apparent performance of percutaneous CT-guided biopsies surpasses that of EUS, this is due to the choice of endoscopy for more difficult lesions. The specificity and negative predictive value of EUS and CT are similar.