Introduction: The methods available for the diagnosis of lung cancer include radiologic, cytologic and pathologic procedures.
Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the quality assurance of CT guided fine needle aspiration cytology of lung nodules.
Methods: Cytology results were rated to 4 categories (positive; suspicious; negative; not representative). All cytology reports were compared with the final histology diagnosis.
Results: A total of 128 patients underwent CT-guided percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy cytology (63 males; 65 females; mean age 62.8 years). Smears were adequate in 99 cases and inadequate in 29 cases. The average diameter of the nodules was 3.28 cm. Thirty three (25.6%) of the cases were histologically verified and 2 falsely negative and 2 falsely positive cases were detected. The sensitivity and the positive predictive value were 88.8% and 88.8%, respectively. Pneumothorax developed in 7 (5.4%) cases.
Conclusion: These results suggest that CT-guided transthoracic fine needle aspiration cytology has a high diagnostic accuracy and an acceptable complication rate. The auditing valves of the results meet the proposed threshold values.