The utility of transbronchial (Wang) fine needle aspiration in lung cancerdiagnosis

We evaluated our experience with transbronchial fine needle aspiration (TBN A) in cancer diagnosis over a period of 1 year. A total of 51 aspirates wer e performed by specialist chest physicians in the presence of a cytopatholo gist who made on spot evaluation of Diff-Quik smears for adequacy and guide d the aspirator for additional sampling if necessary. Two clusters of at le ast 10 malignant cells were required on the Diff-Quik smears to render an o n the spot positive diagnosis of malignancy. Aspirates showing atypical cel ls or few malignant cells not fulfilling the above criteria were placed in a suspicious category and additional material was requested. The TBNA resul ts were correlated with the transbronchial biopsy when available.