Utility and safety of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration in patients with mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy: Western region experience

AIMS: The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical utility and safety of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) in patients with mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy and to explicitly describe the utility of this procedure in patient's outcome. METHODS: A retrospective review and analysis was conducted on 52 patients with mediastinal or hilar lymphadenopathy who underwent EBUS-TBNA from June 2012 to June 2016. All the patients were evaluated by computed tomography (CT) chest with contrast before EBUS examination. Enlarged mediastinal or hilar lymph node was defined as >1 cm short axis on the enhanced CT. RESULTS: Among the 52 patients studied, 57.7% were presented with mediastinal or hilar lymphadenopathy for diagnosis and 42.3% presented with suspected mediastinal malignancy. Paratracheal stations were the most common site for puncture in 33 lymph nodes (43%). The best diagnostic yield was obtained from subcarinal stations and the lowest yield from the hilar stations. Surgical biopsies confirmed lymphoma in six patients, tuberculosis (TB) in three, sarcoidosis in two and one had metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of EBUS-TBNA for diagnosis of mediastinal and hilar lymph node abnormalities were 78.6%, 100%, 100%, and 80%, respectively. The diagnostic yield of EBUS-TBNA in malignant and benign conditions was 79.0%. CONCLUSIONS: EBUS-TBNA is a safe and efficacious procedure which can be performed using conscious sedation with high yields. It can be used for the staging of malignancies as well as for the diagnosis of inflammatory and infectious conditions such as sarcoidosis and TB

Aspiration-related organizing pneumonia complicating laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding: A lung cancer mimicker

There are several described pulmonary complications due to laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. We report a rare case of a 32-year-old male who presented with pulmonary symptoms and a solitary lung mass 12 years after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. A bronchoscopic lung biopsy showed organizing pneumonia that was induced by aspiration pneumonia. The atypical radiological appearance of the aspiration pneumonia may pose a diagnostic challenge, and clinicians' awareness regarding such an entity is needed to avoid unnecessary intervention

Re-infection with different SARS-CoV-2 clade and prolonged viral shedding in a patient with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: SARS-CoV-2 Re-infection with different clade

Immunocompromised patients who have SARS-CoV-2 infection pose many clinical and public health challenges. We describe a patient with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and lymphoma with protracted illness requiring 3 consecutive hospital admissions. Whole genome sequencing confirmed two different SARS-CoV-2 clades. Clinical management issues, and unanswered questions arising are discussed