A prospective comparison of fiberoptic endobronchial needle aspiration, bronchial brushing, and forceps biopsy for the diagnoses of canine exophytic tracheal and endobronchial masses, and submucosal infiltrations.

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the diagnostic yield of endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration to that of bronchial brushing and forceps biopsy for canine tracheal and endobronchial masses and submucosal infiltrations examined by fiberoptic bronchoscopy.

Materials and methods: Flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope-guided bronchial brushing, forceps biopsy, and endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration were performed consecutively in dogs with exophytic airway masses or submucosal infiltrations. The diagnostic performances of the three techniques were compared to surgical or necropsy histopathology, as the gold standard. We determined the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy, and 95% confidence interval of each technique.

Results: Twenty-one dogs were included. Endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration accurately identified malignancy in 90.48% of cases, forceps biopsy in 80.95%, and bronchial brushing in 52.38%. Of the 21 cases, agreement in the final morphological tumour type was obtained in 19 (90%), 15 (71%), and 8 (38%) using endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration, forceps biopsy, and bronchial brushing, respectively. Endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration had the highest sensitivity and accuracy (94% and 90%, respectively; 95% CI: +0.99/-0.89) when used both alone and in combination with the other techniques.

Clinical significance: Endobronchial Wang™ needle aspiration alone or in combination with other techniques may be promising for obtaining the highest diagnostic yield for canine tracheal or bronchial mucosal abnormalities.