Table 3.

Nodal Level Sensitivity by Biopsy Technique and Etiology (N=111 nodes)

Conditions Positively Identified by a Consensual Gold Standard*	Number of Nodes (Sensitivity in %) Positively Diagnosed per Biopsy Technique
Malignant Conditions (Total Nodes per Condition)	TBNA	ca-TBFB	p-value**
NSCLC (33)	33 (100%)	24 (73%)	0.002
Small Cell Lung Cancer (14)	14 (100%)	13 (93%)	***
Lymphoma (5)	5 (100%)	4 (80%)	***
Metastatic Other**** (2)	2 (100%)	1 (50%)	***
Total Malignant (54)	54 (100%)	42 (78%)	<0.001
Nonmalignant Conditions (Total Nodes per Condition)	TBNA	ca-TBFB	p-value**
Granulomatous Inflammation (19)	6 (32%)	17 (85%)	***
Infection (2)	1 (50%)	2 (100%)	***
Lymphocytes Only (36)	33 (92%)	28 (78%)	0.072
Total Non-malignant (57)	40 (70%)	47 (82%)	***
Overall Total	94 (85%)	89 (80%)	***

Abbreviations: TBNA = Transbronchial needle aspiration, in this study, always performed with endobronchial ultrasound guidance

ca-TBFB - Cautery-assisted transbronchial forceps biopsy, always performed with endobronchial ultrasound guidance

NSCLC – Non-small cell lung cancer

^*Two independent, blinded pathologists reached consensus with ties resolved by a third

^**From Fisher’s Exact Test

^***Underpowered to detect the indicated differences with given sample size

^****Metastatic Melanoma, Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (1 node each)