Aspiration biopsy (FNA) in patients with various lung lesions

Percutaneous fine needle aspiration biopsy for cytologic examination of lung lesions, is an accepted and safe diagnostic procedure, especially in cases of primary and metastatic lung tumors. This study includes 348 cases of patients with 172 cases of primary and 50 cases of metastatic lung tumors, 16 suspicious for malignancy, 49 negative for malignancy (2 false negatives), 9 inconclusive and 52 with inadequate material. In many tumor cases, immunochemistry was performed and the diagnosis was evaluated by comparison of the cytological diagnosis to the histological one. A statistical analysis was also performed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were respectively, 99.1%, 100%, 100% and 95.9%. This suggests that percutaneous FNA biopsy is a reliable method and finally, we believe that it can help the physicians in the approach of the diagnostic problems of lung lesions.