Transthoracic aspiration biopsy. A study on diagnostic reproducibility.

Abstract

Based on a randomized material of 100 histologically verified transthoracic aspiration biopsies an inter- and intraobserver variation study was carried out by the two investigators. The results showed a high degree of diagnostic reproducibility pointing towards the value of the aspiration biopsy per se. It is concluded that this diagnostic method is reliable in the hands of the expert and useful even in the hands of a pathologist only given a short introduction to--and a reasonable amount of correction within--this special field.