The pathologist's approach to bronchoscopic biopsies

Bronchoscopically retrieved biopsies of lung tissue often provide valuable information for diagnosis and patient management. There value is often relative: the findings are part of the database for a patient and correlated with the other clinical and radiologic data that is available. Less commonly the findings are diagnostic, providing a specific diagnosis that is the major arbiter of management. The pathologist's task with these specimens is to get as much value from them as possible. This cannot be done by tabulating microscopic findings alone; correlation of the pathologic findings with the clinical and radiologic findings is a necessary part of this exercise.