best Philadelphia hospitals during the era of 1961 to 1965. It is possible for bias to have crept into the data if reporting of the cases by the hospital pathologists was incomplete, but I have no reason to suspect that this was so. I suspect that the rates are now lower as a result of better case selection stirnulated by the sad experiences of the past, as well as by the advent of mediastinosc...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the predictive accuracy as well as the rates of false-positive and false-negative results of CT and positron emission tomography (PET)-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) imaging in detecting the metastatic intrathoracic lymph nodes in patients with suspected or proven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Our other objective was to determine the need for routine invasive sampling pro...

The aims of this report were: 1) to compare the strategy of bioptic approach in Italy during the last 4 yrs with a previous period; and 2) to compare efficacy and safety of video-assisted thorascopic lung biopsy (VTLB) versus OLB. We retrospectively evaluated: 1) the strategy of the bioptic approach in the Milan Sarcoid Clinic in the years 1992-1995 (201 patients) versus 1988-1991 (197 patients...

OBJECTIVES To analyze the clinical utility and economic impact of conventional transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) in patients with diagnosis of bronchogenic carcinoma (BC) and mediastinal lymphadenopathies in thoracic computed tomography (CT). To assess the predictive factors of valid aspirations. PATIENTS AND METHODS Retrospective observational study between 2006 and 2011 of all TBNA pe...

In the investigation of suspected lung cancer bleomycin labelled with cobalt-57 and gallium-67 labelled with citrate are currently used to detect the primary tumour and to establish the presence of metastases in the lung hilum and mediastinum. A comparative study of these radio-pharmaceuticals was performed in 63 patients with proved lung cancer. 57Co-bleomycin showed the primary tumour in 58 p...

Optimal management of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) depends on tissue diagnosis and accurate staging. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is minimally invasive and provides cytological confirmation of malignant mediastinal disease. The aim was to assess the accuracy of EUS-FNA in cases of enlarged mediastinal lymphadenopathy (LN) of unknown aetiology and in the sta...

Invasive staging of mediastinal lymph nodes is recommended for the majority of patients with potentially resectable non-small cell lung cancer. In the past, 'blind' transbronchial needle aspiration during bronchoscopy and mediastinoscopy, a surgical procedure conducted under general anesthesia, were the only diagnostic methods. The latter is still considered the 'gold standard'; however, two no...

BACKGROUND Mediastinal diseases are difficult to diagnose due to diverse origins and complex anatomical structure of the mediastinal tissues. The prospective study aimed to compare the diagnostic efficiency of video-assisted mediastinoscopy (VAM) and endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) for mediastinal lesions without pulmonary abnormalities. MATERIAL AND...