PNEUMOTHORAX DURING FLUOROSCOPIC BIOPSY - EFFECT ON NODULE DEPTH

Transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy of lung nodules is often perfor med under fluoroscopic guidance after measurement of lesion depth on p reliminary computed tomography (CT) scans is obtained. We evaluated th e change in depth of nodules in 10 patients in whom pneumothorax devel oped during CT-guided biopsy. We observed that nodule depth changed by an amount equal to the size of the pneumothorax. Awareness of the pot ential effect of pneumothorax on lesion depth should be helpful in red ucing the likelihood of false-negative results with CT-assisted fluoro scopic biopsy when only single-plane fluoroscopy is available.