Comparison of Diagnostic Performances in Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Liver Biopsy using Different Techniques

Aims Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) for hepatic solid lesions has emerged as a safe technique to diagnosis. However, the optimal FNB techniques have not been evaluated. Our study aimed to compare the diagnostic yield and specimen adequacy of EUS-FNB in hepatic solid lesions using different FNB techniques ([Table 1]).

Table 1  Diagnostic performances according to EUS-FNB techniques.

Methods This is a single center retrospective study of EUS-FNB for hepatic solid lesions between Mar. 2015 and Jun. 2022. Each one needle pass of suction and slow-pull suction was applied for same hepatic lesions and the sequence was randomly assigned. The primary outcomes were diagnostic yield to attain a histological diagnosis and rate of adequate specimen acquisition.​

Results A total of 119 patients (40 females, median age 70 years) underwent EUS-FNB for hepatic solid lesions. The mean lesion size was 34.9±27.3 mm (range 7-150). The overall diagnostic yield was 90.8%. There was statistically no difference in diagnostic accuracy between suction and slow-pull suction (79.8% vs. 84.9%, P=0.308). Slow-pull suction obtained more adequate specimen comparing to suction (95.0% vs. 87.4%, P=0.040) [1] [2].

Conclusions The use of slow-pull suction EUS-FNB demonstrated improved specimen adequacy compared with suction technique with no difference in diagnostic accuracy.

Conflicts of interest

Authors do not have any conflict of interest to disclose.

• 1 Madhok IK, Parsa N, Nieto JM.. Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Liver Biopsy. Clin Liver Dis 2022; 26: 127-138
• 2 Gheorghiu M, Seicean A, Bolboaca SD. et al. Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Biopsy versus Fine-Needle Aspiration in the Diagnosis of Focal Liver Lesions: Prospective Head-to-Head Comparison. Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 12.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2023