Comparison of Different Techniques of Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Biopsy of Liver in a Swine Model.
BACKGROUND
The quality of liver biopsy specimens obtained with different fine needle biopsy (FNB) techniques has not been compared.


OBJECTIVE
This study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic quality of three different liver FNB biopsy techniques.


METHODS
Two sequential biopsy series were performed on piglets. Three biopsy techniques were compared: capillary-FNB, core-FNB (CFNB) and vacuum-assisted CFNB (VACFNB) in a swine model. Initially, 30 liver biopsies were performed (ten for each technique). The cellularity and quantity of blood in specimens were measured and compared. In the second series, 54 additional biopsies using CFNB and VACFNB techniques (27 each) in a separate piglet were evaluated in the same fashion.


RESULTS
In the first series, cellularity and blood levels were significantly lower in capillary-FNB compared with CFNB (P < 0.001 and P = 0.011, respectively). There was no significant difference between CFNB and VACFNB in cellularity and blood (P = 0.15 and P = 0.1, respectively). In the second series, cellularity was significantly higher in CFNB compared with VACFNB (P < 0.001) with no significant difference in blood (P = 0.5).


CONCLUSIONS
Among these three different FNB techniques, CFNB technique provided the greatest cellularity. Capillary-FNB technique was inferior among all with the lowest quality of obtained material for cytopathological interpretation.
Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University Health-Shreveport, Shreveport, United States.
Alireza
A
Hamidian Jahromi
School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health-Shreveport, Shreveport, United States.
David Hilton
DH
Ballard
Department of Radiology, Louisiana State University Health-Shreveport, Shreveport, United States.
Reza
R
Bahrami
Department of Radiology, Louisiana State University Health-Shreveport, Shreveport, United States.
Horacio Ruben Vicente
HR
D'Agostino
Core Needle Biopsy; Fine Needle Biopsy; Fine-Needle Aspiration; Liver