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Purpose: Evaluation of diagnostic accuracy and complication frequency at ultrasonographically guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of intrathoracic tumors., Material and Methods: A total of 134 ultrasonographically guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsies were performed on 128 patients with intrathoracic tumors abutting on the pleura. A cytologic diagnosis was obtained in 119 patients (93%)., Results: In 83 patients, cytologic malignancy was found; in 34, benignity; and in 2, cellular atypia. A total of 117 diagnoses were correct and 2 diagnoses were false-positive. A malignancy subtyping based on the cytologic aspirates was made in 80 patients. In 40 (93%) of 43 histologically proven subtypes, the subtyping was correct. The complication frequency in terms of pneumothorax was 3.7%., Conclusion: Ultrasonographically guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a safe and reliable method of establishing the cytologic diagnosis of intrathoracic tumors.

One hundred and thirty-one ultrasound-guided renal biopsies performed in 127 patients with automated spring-loaded biopsy technique were evaluated. Adequate tissue for histologic diagnosis was obtained in 92% of the procedures (94% of the patients). The mean glomerular yield was 16.8 glomeruli. Complications were seen in 21% of the patients, 18% having minor and 3% having major complications. Patients with severe hypertension had significantly more complications than the rest of the patients. The rate of complications in patients who had 3 or 4 biopsy passes was not increased compared to patients who had one or 2 biopsy passes. Thus, this study indicates that the risk of complications and the safety of the procedure is not influenced by increasing the number of biopsy passes in order to obtain representative specimens.