The utility of EBUS-TBNA in mediastinal or hilar lymph node evaluation in extrapulmonary malignancy

The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic performance of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in the diagnosis of mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes (LNs) in patients with known extrapulmonary malignancy.

Between March 2011 and August 2013, 378 EBUS-TBNA procedures were performed. Sixty-three (16.6%) of these were performed on known extrapulmonary malignancy patients.

There were 28 male and 35 female patients, with median ages of 65 years (min-max: 53-87) and 57 years (min-max: 39-76), respectively. From the 63 cases, 138 lymph nodes (LNs) were sampled with EBUS-TBNA (median: 2 LNs/patient; min-max: 1-4). Results of EBUS-TBNA revealed malignancy in 18 (28.5%) and nonmalignancy in 45 (71.5%). In the nonmalignant group, there were false negatives in 5 (7.9%), anthracosis in 13 (20.6%), reactive adenitis in 16 (25.3%), sarcoidosis in 7 (11.1%), and tuberculosis in 2 (3.1%), and 2 were not evaluated (lost to follow-up) (3.1%). The diagnostic sensitivity, accuracy, and negative predictive value of EBUS-TBNA per patient were 78.2%, 91.8%, and 88.3%, respectively.

EBUS-TBNA is a safe, minimally invasive, and effective method and can be considered as the initial test for the histopathological diagnosis of mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy in patients with extrapulmonary malignancy.