Response to Letter to Editor on the Article: “Clinical Applications of Contrast-Enhanced Thoracic Ultrasound (CETUS) Compared to Standard Reference Tests: A Systematic Review” by Jacobsen N et al.

Dear Editor,

we would like to thank the authors for their interest in our paper.

The authors report their own findings regarding the diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced thoracic ultrasound (CETUS)-guided transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) versus thoracic ultrasound (TUS)-guided TTNB in patients with subpleural malignant lesions. 322 patients were assigned 1:1 in a randomly but unblinded manner. A significant difference in diagnostic accuracy between the CETUS+ and the CETUS– group (93.7 % vs. 87.4 %) was not found. In our systematic review, six studies compared the diagnostic accuracy of CETUS-guided versus TUS-guided TTNB. Four of the studies assessed mediastinal lesions only, one study assessed peripheral pulmonary lesions only, and one study assessed both mediastinal and peripheral pulmonary lesions. They all individually reported a significant increase in diagnostic accuracy in favor of CETUS guidance and the mean diagnostic accuracy of the studies was 95.4 % and 80.8 % for CETUS+ and CETUS–, respectively.

Publication History

Article published online:
31 July 2020

• References

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• 2 Laursen C. et al. European Respiratory Journal 2016; 48: PA3850
• 3 Jacobsen N. et al Ultrasound Med Biol 2020; Epub ahead of print DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2020.05.011.
• 4 Bai J. et al. J Ultras Med 2016; 35: 1523-1532