title: Thin-needle aspiration biopsy: methods of increasing the accuracy of a negative prediction.
abstract: A total of 164 consecutive patients were studied prospectively in the hope of increasing the accuracy of a negative prediction of transthoracic thin-needle biopsy. The protocol included pre-biopsy imaging with conventional and computed tomography, repeated sampling if no malignant cells were found, and specialized staining and culture methods. Forty-four patients with no evidence of malignant cells were divided into "benign specific" [25] and "benign nonspecific" groups [19]. A variety of bacterial and fungal infections, benign tumors, and other benign specific diagnoses were made. The accuracy of a negative prediction for the benign specific group was found to be 1.00 (100%), while that for the benign nonspecific group varied from 84% to 95% depending on whether the 2 patients lost to follow-up had benign disease.
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed