Journal of thoracic imaging
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Ultrasound (US)-guided transthoracic biopsy is well suited for the sampling of those mediastinal, hilar, pleural, chest-wall, and peripheral lung lesions that provide an adequate acoustic window to the transducer. Chest-wall, pleural, and peripheral lung lesions are generally hypoechoic relative to their surrounding tissues. A special puncture transducer is used to perform US-guided biopsy with real-time visualization of the biopsy needle and the lesion. ⋯ Pulmonary consolidation, lung abscess, and parapneumonic effusions are easily sampled for microbiologic diagnosis. The peripheral nature of lesions accessed by US guidance accounts for a very low rate of complications. Although US-guided needle biopsy requires certain expertise, the technique is relatively easy to master and can be performed in many situations where computed tomography-guided biopsy would previously have been used.