• Eric L Scholten, Roy Semaan, Peter Illei, Christopher Mallow, Sixto Arias, David Feller-Kopman, Karen Oakjones-Burgess, Bernice Frimpong, Ricardo O Amador, Hans Lee, and Lonny Yarmus.
• Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA.
• Chest. 2017 Mar 1; 151 (3): 636642636-642.

BackgroundEndobronchial ultrasonographically guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) of thoracic structures is a commonly performed tissue sampling technique. The use of an inner-stylet in the EBUS needle has never been rigorously evaluated and may be unnecessary.MethodsIn a prospective randomized single-blind controlled clinical trial, patients with a clinical indication for EBUS-TBNA underwent lymph node sampling using both with-stylet and without-stylet techniques. Sample adequacy, diagnostic yield, and various cytologic quality measures were compared.ResultsOne hundred twenty-one patients were enrolled, with 194 lymph nodes sampled, each using both with-stylet and without-stylet techniques. There was no significant difference in sample adequacy or diagnostic yield between techniques. The without-stylet technique resulted in adequate samples in 87% of the 194 study lymph nodes, which was no different from the with-stylet adequacy rate (82%; P = .371). The with-stylet technique resulted in a diagnosis in 50 of 194 samples (25.7%), which was similar to the without-stylet group (49 of 194 [25.2%]; P = .740). There was a high degree of concordance in the determination of adequacy (84.0%; 95% CI, 78.1-88.9) and diagnostic sample generation (95.4%; 95% CI, 91.2-97.9) between the two techniques. A similar qualitative number of lymphocytes, malignant cells, and bronchial respiratory epithelia were recovered using each technique.ConclusionsOmitting stylet use during EBUS-TBNA does not affect diagnostic outcomes and reduces procedural complexity.Trial RegistryClinicalTrials.Gov: No. NCT 02201654; URL:www.clinicaltrials.gov.Copyright © 2016 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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