BRONCHIAL BRUSHING AND BIOPSY - A COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION IN DIAGNOSING VISIBLE BRONCHIAL LESIONS

One hundred and forty patients underwent 142 brushings and conventional biopsies of suspected malignant lesions of the lung through a fibre opticbronchoscope. Both samples were taken from the same area. One hundred andthree patients showed positive results on brushing and 90 on biopsy.Thirty-nine diagnoses were negative on brushing and 52 on biopsy. A correctcell typing was obtained in 105 of 109 diagnoses of malignancy. Finaldiagnoses showed 118 malignant lesions and 22 benign conditions. Falsepositives were respectively, 2 on brushing and 1 on biopsy, while falsenegatives were 17 on brushing and 30 on biopsy. Brushing showed highersensitivity (85.5%) and accuracy (86.6%) than biopsy. A combination of the two techniques gives an accuracy rate of 94.3%. © Springer-Verlag.