CT-guided pleural biopsy preferable to traditional Abram’s needle in diagnosing malignant pleural disease

▴ Maskell NA, Gleeson FV, Davies RJO. Standard pleural biopsy versus CT-guided cutting-needle biopsy for diagnosis of malignant disease in pleural effusions: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet2003;361:1326–30 [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] Malignant disease is a leading cause of pleural effusion, with about 40 000 cases occurring annually in the UK and 175 000 in the USA. Pleural fluid cytology establishes a diagnosis in only 60% of these effusions. Pleural biopsy using an Abram’s needle, … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DLancet%26rft.stitle%253DLancet%26rft.aulast%253DMaskell%26rft.auinit1%253DN.%2BA.%26rft.volume%253D361%26rft.issue%253D9366%26rft.spage%253D1326%26rft.epage%253D1330%26rft.atitle%253DStandard%2Bpleural%2Bbiopsy%2Bversus%2BCT-guided%2Bcutting-needle%2Bbiopsy%2Bfor%2Bdiagnosis%2Bof%2Bmalignant%2Bdisease%2Bin%2Bpleural%2Beffusions%253A%2Ba%2Brandomised%2Bcontrolled%2Btrial.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1016%252FS0140-6736%252803%252913079-6%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F12711467%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13079-6&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=12711467&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fthoraxjnl%2F58%2F7%2F588.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000182346100009&link_type=ISI