TY - JOUR T1 - Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer in a large cohort of patients JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p243 AU - Sara Chiesa AU - Maria Majori AU - Rita Nizzoli AU - AnnaMaria Guazzi AU - Miriam Anghinolfi AU - Alfredo Antonio Chetta AU - Angelo Gianni Casalini Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p243.abstract N2 - Introduction: TBNA is a minimally invasive bronchoscopy technique, that allows to examine mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes, avoiding surgical mediastinal exploration.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy of TBNA in a large cohort of patients. In addition, we appraised the relationships between TBNA yield and lymph node size and location.Methods: Between March 2009 and November 2011, we prospectively examined 110 patients (age range: 30 to 87 yr, 31 F) with suspected lung cancer and enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes. Each patient performed TBNA during flexible bronchoscopy with rapid-on-site evaluation.Results: TBNA was positive in 88 of 110 patients with suspected lung cancer (80%). No complications was observed. The lymph node size cut-off point, that better identified patients with positive aspirate was ≥ 24 mm (0.83 sensitivity and 0.51 specificity; AUC=0.681, p=0.018 by ROC curve analysis).In all patients, the subcarinal and anterial carina limph node locations had the higher percentage and the left paratrachea limph node location had the lower percentage of patients with positive aspirates (98%, 75% and 50%, respectively).Conclusions: Our results confirm that in a large cohort of patients conventional TBNA is a sensitive technique and an effective tool to diagnose and stage lung cancer and show that a ≥ 24 mm limph node size has a high likelihood to be associated to a positive aspirate. Additionally, the limph node location may play a role in the diagnostic yield of TBNA. ER -