Abstract
Background: Due to the small specimen size of transbronchial forcepsbiopsy, the histological diagnosis of interstitial lung disease is often difficult. In comparison transbronchial cryobiopsies were shown to be bigger and to contain more often and larger amount of alveolar tissue.
Methods: Since 2009, all histological results of patients suspicious of ILD (clinical signs, pulmonary function, CT-scan-criteria) who underwent bronchocoscopy with transbronchial forceps- and cryobiopsy were analysed concerning the impact of the additional use of cryotechnique.
Results: We evaluated data of 34 patients (age 60.0 ± 13.2 years) who underwent forceps- and cryobiopsy. For 10 patients (29.4%) neither forceps- nor cryobiopsy assured a histological diagnosis. In 11 cases (32.4%) both methods ensured a diagnosis. In 12 cases (35.3%) a histological classification was found only in the cryobiopsy, in 1 case (2.9%) only in the forcepsbiopsy.
Conclusion: By additiononal use of the cryoprobe in transbronchial biopsy, in this prospective case series up to today we were able to increase the amount of ensured histological diagnoses in ILD from 12/34 = 35,3 % without cryobiopsy to 23/34 = 67,6% with cryobiopsy. This shows the high potential of cryotechnique as a tool in transbronchial biopsy in the diagnostic of ILD.
- © 2012 ERS