The diagnosis of centrally located intrapulmonary tumors not visible on bronchoscopy may be a challenge. Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) has been shown to be useful for the evaluation of mediastinal lymph nodes. However, there have been no reports of the utility of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of intrapulmonary tumors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of intrapulmonary tumors located adjacent to the central airway. From December 2002 to June 2007, 35 patients with pulmonary masses located close to the central airways were accessed by EBUS-TBNA. Conventional bronchoscopic biopsy before EBUS-TBNA was nondiagnostic in 25 of the 35 cases. Patients with endobronchial lesions were excluded from this study. EBUS-TBNA was performed in 19 peritracheal and 16 peribronchial lesions. Cytologic and/or histologic samples were diagnostic in 33 of 35 patients. The final diagnoses of the pulmonary masses were lung cancer in 26 cases (1 small cell lung cancer, 25 non-small cell lung cancer), metastatic lung tumors in 5, and BALT lymphoma in one. The sensitivity and the diagnostic accuracy of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of unknown pulmonary masses was 94.1% and 94.3%, respectively. Intrapulmonary lesions not assessable by conventional bronchoscopic procedures can easily be assessed and diagnosed by EBUS-TBNA as long as it is within the reach of the EBUS-TBNA scope. EBUS-TBNA is a real-time procedure with a high yield which can be applied for the diagnosis of lung tumors.
