title: Endoscopic ultrasound guided transbronchial fine needle aspiration: a French Department of Pathology's 4-year experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) guided transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is an accurate outpatient procedure used to explore mediastinal lymph nodes for lung cancer staging and unexplained mediastinal masses.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A retrospective study was conducted over four years on EBUS-TBNA sampled lymph nodes investigated for the staging of lung cancer or unexplained mediastinal lymphadenopathies, first using the conventional method (CM) and then a liquid based cytology (LBC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 628 specimens (355 patients) collected, the overall rate of adequacy was 88% and the diagnosis of malignancy was achieved in 43% of cases. The inadequate rate was 6% with LBC and 21% with CM. A paraffin cytoblock was available in 80% with LBC and 62% with CM. Of the 628 aspirates, 270 (43%) were categorised as negative for malignancy including 26 cases consistent with sarcoidosis, 272 (43%) as malignant, 9 (1.4%) as suspicious for non-small-cell carcinoma and 77 as inadequate samples (12%). Of the 272 cases diagnosed as malignant, 87 (32%) were classified as non-small-cell carcinoma, 106 (39%) as adenocarcinoma, 48 (18%) as squamous cell carcinoma and 20 (7%) as small cell carcinoma. Five lymphomas, four metastatic melanomas and two carcinoids were also diagnosed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EBUS-TBNA is a reliable method for the staging of lung cancer and for unexplained mediastinal mass exploration. The LBC has a lower rate of inadequate samples, a better yield of cytoblock for immunohistochemistry and a dramatically reduced time requirement for interpretation as compared to CM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, CHU Lille, France. claire.delattre@chru-lille.fr
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Delattre
authors.forename: Clément
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bouchindhomme
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Escande
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ramon
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Copin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000379:methods*; D001999:Bronchoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D008482:Mediastinum / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult