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In a large single-center case series from Japan, researchers describe their experience with computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy of pulmonary lesions in 750 patients (median age, 71; mean lesion size, 2.4 cm; mean distance between pleura and lesion, 1.6 cm). Patients underwent both fine-needle aspiration and core biopsy.
In 10 patients, procedures were terminated before any specimens were obtained. Biopsy was interpreted as malignant in 542 patients (73%), with one false-positive, in which the lesion was benign at surgical resection (positive predictive value, 99.8%). Results were negative for malignancy in 198 patients; 147 of the 198 patients with benign biopsy results ultimately were proven to have benign infectious or noninfectious les…