Aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB)indiagnosisof malignant lung tumors.
Material and methods: The results of 438 CT guided FNAB of lung lesions performed between Sep. 1st 1999 and Feb. 20th 2004 were evaluated.
Results: In 295 cases (67.35%) the cytological diagnosis of lung tumours were established by FNAB. The most common type of the tumours were: non-small cell lung cancer: 222 (50.69%) and small cell lung cancer: 49 (11.19%). 104 of these results were histologically verified and two false positive results were detected. In 143 cases (32.65%) however, the results established by FNAB were non-diagnostic. 63 of the lesions were verifiedandin36 cases (57.1%) the malignant tumours were proved. The specificity of the method regarding malignant lesions reached 93.10%, and its sensitivity for patients with malignancy was 73.91%. The average diameter of the malignant tumour was 5.4 ± 1.3 cm whereas in case of non-diagnostic results the diameter of the tumour was 4.1 ± 1.6 cm. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The most common complication of FNAB was pneumothorax, which occurred in 22 patients (5.02%) and in 13 cases (2.97%) required drainage of the chest cavity.
Conclusion: FNAB is a safe diagnostic method with high specificity and moderate sensitivity in detecting of malignant lung lesions.