title: Accuracy of CT-guided biopsies in 158 patients with thoracic spinal lesions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inconsistent accuracies of CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsies have been reported in previous studies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the accuracy of CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsy, to compare the results with those previously reported, and to determine if there are any factors that influence the accuracy of CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 158 consecutive CT-guided percutaneous thoracic spine procedures (performed at the Department of Spinal Surgery, Xi'an Red Cross Hospital between April 2000 and July 2010) were reviewed. The 158 lesions were categorized by location and radiographic features. Pathological and clinical follow-up were used to determine accuracy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The diagnostic accuracy of CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsy was 90.5% overall. Biopsy of metastatic bone disease (98.2%) was significantly more accurate than biopsies of primary tumors (80.9%) and of hematological malignancies (47.0%) (P < 0.05 and P < 0.005, respectively). The diagnostic accuracy of CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsy was significantly higher for the lower thoracic spine (97.6%) than for the middle (90.0%) or upper thoracic spine (80.4%) (P < 0.05 and P < 0.025, respectively). The diagnostic accuracy was significantly higher for lytic lesions (96.4%) than for sclerotic lesions (81.3%) (P < 0.010). The accuracy of biopsies performed using the transpedicular approach (91.0%) was not significantly different from that of biopsies performed using posterolateral approaches (91.5%) (0.25 < P < 0.5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Percutaneous CT-guided thoracic spinal biopsy is a viable alternative to open surgical biopsy. The diagnostic accuracy was not affected by any of the variables except for lesion level, histology, and radiographic features.
authors.affiliation: Department of Spinal Surgery, Xi'an Red Cross Hospital, Xi'an Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Q P
authors.initials: QP
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed