Image-assisted Abrams needle biopsy as good as medical thoracoscopy for diagnosis of pleural effusion: Study

RESULTS: The false negativity rate was 30.3% for the IA-ANPB arm and 3.1% for the MT arm in Group 1. The same rates were 11.9% for IA-ANPB and 4.7% for MT in Group 2. In Group 1, the sensitivity for the IA-ANPB arm was 69.7%, negative likelihood ratio of 0.30. The same rates for the MT arm were 96.9% and 0.03 (p=0.009). In Group 2, these values were 88.1% and 0.12 for the IA-ANPB arm and 95.4% and 0.05 for the MT arm (p=0.207). The rate of complications between the two biopsy methods was not different (8.5% and 15.8%, respectively; p=0.107). MT showed a high diagnostic success in all patients with pleural fluid. On the other hand, IA-ANPB showed similar diagnostic success as MT in patients with pleural effusion and associated pleural thickening/lesions. Therefore, in the latter case, IA-ANPB could be preferable before MT.

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IMAGE-ASSISTED PLEURAL NEEDLE BIOPSY OR MEDICAL THORACOSCOPY: WHICH METHOD FOR WHICH PATIENT? A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL Muzaffer Metintas, MD Guntulu Ak, MD, PhD Huseyin Yildirim, MD Fusun Alatas, MD Senay Yilmaz, MD Selma Metintas, MD, PhD Show all authors Published:March 28, 2024 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2024.03.038