[Percutaneous CT guided bone biopsy in patients with suspected bone neoplasm]

Bone biopsy is necessary for the diagnosis of ambiguous skeletal lesions. Although several merits of computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous needle biopsy have been documented, few radiologists have performed this procedure in Japan. We performed this procedure with a newly introduced bone biopsy needle (OSTYCUT, angiomed, Karlsruhe, Germany) under CT guidance and evaluated the results. CT-guided bone biopsy (pelvic[n = 11]vertebral[n = 10], femoral[n = 1], sternal[n = 1]) was performed in 19 consecutive patients. Seventeen patients were suspected metastatic disease, and the others were suspected primary bone tumor. All biopsies but one were diagnostic. Malignancy was proved in 11 lesions. Three patients with prostatic carcinoma were proved to show no malignancy of bone lesions after a series of hormonal and chemotherapies. In one patient with both malignant mesothelioma and cervical carcinoma, the biopsy specimen from thoracic vertebra proved metastasis from mesothelioma. CT-guided bone biopsy is useful to evaluate the presence of malignancy and the effect of therapy for it, and to determine the primary site.