J Korean Cancer Assoc.  1999 Aug;31(4):686-691.

Differences of Diagnostic Rate According to Technique of Bronchial Brush in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

• Cha SI
• Park JY
• Won JH
• Kang TK
• Park KS
• Kim CH
• Jung TH
• Park TI
• son YK

Abstract

PURPOSE: Brush cytology is one of useful methods for establishing a diagnosis of lung cancer. There are two methods of retrieving the specimen of brush cytology. One is to withdraw the brush through the working channel of the bronchoscope (withdrawn brush) and the other is to withdraw the brush and bronchoscope as a unit, with brush remaining protruded through the distal tip of the bronchoscope (nonwithdrawn brush). We tried to compare two methods in the cellularity of the specimen and the diagnosis of lung cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty-one patients with suspected lung cancer were studied prospectively. The sequence of sampling (withdrawn or nonwithdrawn brush) was assigned randomly. The specimens were interpreted by two cytopathologists about cellularity (1-4) and presence of recognizable malignant cells.
RESULTS
Cellularity was significantly greater for nonwithdrawn brush (p<0.05). There was no significant difference of diagnostic rate between both methods in the diagnosis of lung cancer.
CONCLUSION
Withdrawing the brush through the bronchoscope decreases the cellularity, but it does not affect the diagnostic rate for lung cancer.

Keyword

Lung cancer; Bronchial brush

MeSH Terms

Bronchoscopes
Diagnosis*
Humans
Lung Neoplasms*
Lung*
Prospective Studies