title: Fallibility of transthoracic needle biopsy of anterior mediastinal masses.
abstract: Percutaneous transthoracic core needle biopsy has been advocated as a highly accurate technique for the diagnosis of anterior mediastinal masses. A patient is described with a large anterior mediastinal mass in whom the diagnosis of mediastinal carcinoid tumour was made by transthoracic core needle biopsy. At definitive surgical resection the tumour proved to be a B cell lymphoma. This case illustrates one of the important limitations of needle biopsy with its potential for sampling error.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000473:pathology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology