Comparison of bronchial brushing, washing and forceps biopsies in diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma

  Five hundred eighty patients underwent diagnostic flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy: during June 1988 to March 1993 at the bronchoscopy center of Kerman university of medical sciences. Seventy six specimens were obtained from patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and 155 from patients with benign disease of the lung. The efficiency of brushing and washing techniques was compared with forceps biopsy ( gold standard). The diagnostic sensitivity for bronchogenic carcinoma was 42.8℅ and 66.6℅ for washing and brushing methods respectively. The specificity was 99.4℅ and 100℅ respectively. Bronchial washing specimens apparently did not increase the diagnosis yield of brushing technique and could therefore, be eliminated as an unnecessary cost and time consuming procedure. These findings are consistent with the view that after forceps biopsies the brushing technique is relatively most accurate for cytodiagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma.