[Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy in diffuse lung disease: a pathological analysis of 173 cases]

Area of Science:

• Pulmonology
• Pathology
• Interventional Pulmonology

Background:

• Accurate pathological diagnosis is crucial for managing diffuse lung diseases.
• Traditional transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) has limitations in obtaining adequate tissue samples for diagnosis.
• Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBCB) has emerged as a potential alternative for obtaining larger tissue samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic value and efficacy of transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBCB) for diffuse lung diseases.
• To compare the diagnostic yield and specimen size of TBCB with conventional transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB).

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of clinicopathological data from 173 patients with diffuse lung disease.
• Patients underwent transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBCB) between January 2017 and June 2019.
• A subset of 54 patients also underwent conventional transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) for direct comparison of specimen size and diagnostic yield.

Main Results:

• The overall diagnostic yield for TBCB was 85.54% (148/173), with 92.49% providing definite or valuable pathological results.
• TBCB specimens were significantly larger ((3.3±1.3) mm(2)) than TBLB specimens ((1.0±0.3) mm(2)) (P<0.01).
• TBCB demonstrated a higher diagnostic yield (81.48%) compared to TBLB (42.59%) (P<0.01), especially for interstitial lung diseases (48.15% vs 5.56%, P<0.01).

Conclusions:

• Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBCB) offers significant advantages over transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) in diagnosing diffuse pulmonary diseases.
• TBCB is particularly effective for diagnosing interstitial lung diseases, providing larger specimens and higher diagnostic accuracy.
• TBCB is a valuable tool for pathological diagnosis in diffuse lung diseases, especially when TBLB is insufficient.