Endobronchial OCT safe and accurate method for microscopic ILD diagnosis: Study

The resulting EB-OCT images and histopathology were interpreted independently by blinded, independent pathologists. Clinical diagnosis was obtained from the treating pulmonologists after SLB, blinded to EB-OCT.

The researchers enrolled 31 patients and four were excluded due to inconclusive histopathology or lack of EB-OCT data. Twenty-seven patients were included in the analysis of which, twelve were diagnosed with UIP and fifteen with non-UIP ILD.

The results of the study are as follows:

Average forced vital capacity and DLCO were 75.3% and 53.5% respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of EB-OCT was 100% and 100% respectively, for both histopathologic UIP and clinical diagnosis of IPF.

There was high agreement between EB-OCT and histopathology for diagnosis of ILD fibrosis pattern.

Thus, the researchers concluded that EB-OCT is a safe, accurate method for microscopic ILD diagnosis, as a complement to HRCT and alternative to SLB.

Reference:

Diagnostic Accuracy of Endobronchial Optical Coherence Tomography for the Microscopic Diagnosis of Usual Interstitial Pneumonia by Nandy S et. al published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202104-0847OC