Effectiveness of Transbronchial Biopsy with Endobronchial Ultrasonography Using a Guide Sheath

Abstract

Background. Recently, the effectiveness of endobronchial ultrasonography with a guide sheath (EBUS-GS) has been reported for diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the treatment for lung cancer patients should be planned based on their histology and status of oncogenic driver mutations. Objective. We assessed the effectiveness of EBUS-GS for peripheral lung lesions. Patients and Methods. We reviewed the medical records of 64 patients who underwent EBUS-GS for peripheral lung lesions from August 2011 to March 2013. Results. Diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity were 72.6% and 66.7%, respectively. The percentage of EGFR-mutations diagnosed by EBUS-GS among patients with adenocarcinoma was 33.3%. Conclusion. EBUS-GS is effective to obtain tissue specimens for diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions. Tumor samples obtained by EBUS-GS were suitable for further examination of oncogenic driver mutations.