[Transesophageal endoscopic ultrasonography guided-fine needle aspiration for the diagnosis of sarcoidosis].
Sarcoidosis is a multi-organ disorder of unknown etiology characterized by noncaseating epithelioid cell granulomas. The specimen for histopathological diagnosis is usually obtained by transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB), but the diagnostic accuracy rate of TBLB is not satisfactory, especially for stage I patients. Since hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy is a common finding in patients with sarcoidosis, an approach to lymph nodes is expected to have a good diagnosis yield. We present 3 sarcoidosis patients in whom specimens obtained by TBLB, transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) and transesophageal endoscopic ultrasonography guided-fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). The histopathological appearance of specimens obtained by EUS-FNA for swollen mediastinal lymph nodes showed noncaseating epithelioid granulomas which are characteristic of sarcoidosis in all 3 patients. On the other hand, no specific findings were recognized in the specimens obtained by TBLB and TBNA in 2 out of 3 patients. These results suggest that EUS-FNA is useful to obtain diagnostic specimens in cases of sarcoidosis.
Saito
Kazue
K
Department of Pulmonary Medicine, School of Medicine, Fukushima Medical University.
Tanino
Yoshinori
Y
Inokoshi
Yayoi
Y
Sato
Suguru
S
Oshima
Kengo
K
Ishii
Taeko
T
Nakagawa
Naoko
N
Fukuhar
Atsuro
A
Kanazawa
Kenya
K
Saito
Junpei
J
Ishida
Takashi
T
Hikichi
Takuto
T
Irisawa
Atsushi
A
Ohira
Hiromasa
H
Munakata
Mitsuru
M
D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000379:methods*; D019160:Endosonography / Q000379:methods*; D004947:Esophagus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000473:pathology*