Diagnostic yield and safety of endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration of central mediastinal lung masses.

EUS-FNA diagnostic accuracy and safety. Results. 73 consecutive patients were included. EUS allowed detection in 62 (85%) patients with lack of visualization prohibiting FNA in 11 patients. Among sampled lesions, one patient (1/62 = 1.6%) had a benign lung mass (hamartoma), while the remaining 61 patients (61/62 = 98.4%) had a malignant mass (primary lung cancer: 55/61 = 90%; lung metastasis: 6/61 = 10%). The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of EUS-FNA were 96.7%, 100%, and 96.7%, respectively. The sensitivity was 80.8% when considering nonvisualized masses. One patient developed a pneumothorax (1/62 = 1.6%). Conclusions. EUS-FNA appears to be an accurate and safe technique for tissue diagnosis of central mediastinal lung masses.