YIELD AND COMPLICATIONS IN ULTRASOUND-GUIDED BIOPSY OF ABDOMINAL LESIONS LESIONS - COMPARISON OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY AND 1.2-MM NEEDLE CORE BIOPSY USING AN AUTOMATED BIOPSY GUN

A series of 458 consecutive ultrasound-guided biopsies in 347 patients - 171 fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNABs) and 287 1.2-mm needle c ore biopsies (NCBs)- was analysed for diagnostic yield and complicatio ns. FNAB was diagnostic in 107 (64%) biopsies of focal lesions with a correct diagnosis of malignancy in 86 of 125 biopsies (69%) and of ben ign disease in 21 of 43 (49%) biopsies. NCB provided a correct diagnos is in 189 (90%) biopsies for focal lesions, divided into 140 of 159 (8 8%) correct for malignancy and 49 of 50 (98%) correct for benign disea se. In 69 patients examined with both FNAB and NCB on the same occasio n, 50 out of 55 malignant lesions were identified with NCB but only 34 with FNAB; all 14 benign lesions were correctly identified by NCB, an d only 6 by FNAB. Clinical relevant bleeding complications occurred in 6 out of 458 biopsies (1.3%) - 3 out of 287 following NCB (1.0%) and 3 out of 171 following FNAB (1.8%). It is concluded that if FNAB is re placed with 1.2-mm NCB using an automated biopsy gun, the diagnostic a ccuracy for abdominal lesions increases significantly (p<0.001), while the complication rate remains the same.