The clinical respiratory journal
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Comparative Study
The role of EBUS-TBNA and standard bronchoscopic modalities in the diagnosis of sarcoidosis.
Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is an accurate and minimally invasive technique that has been shown to have excellent diagnostic yield in the diagnosis of mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy. However, endoscopic bronchial biopsy (EBB) and transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) are still the standard method for making a pathologic diagnosis of sarcoidosis. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic yield of EBUS-TBNA and TBLB through a flexible bronchoscope in patients with stage I and II sarcoidosis. ⋯ The diagnostic yield of the EBUS-TBNA for stage I and II sarcoidosis is clearly higher than for TBLB and EBB. The combination of EBUS-TBNA with standard bronchoscopic techniques is safe and feasible, and optimizes the diagnostic yield in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and enlarged intrathoracic lymph nodes. EBUS-TBNA in combination with standard bronchoscopy may be considered to be the first-line investigation in patients with suspected sarcoidosis and enlarged intrathoracic lymphadenopathy.