Pre-Surgical Methylene-Blue “targeting” of Small Intrapulmonary Nodules In Patients with Haematological Malignancies: Preliminary Experience.

Abstract 4551

The diagnosis of intrapulmonary nodules in patients with haematological malignancies is problematic as such lesions are often small and impalpable and “non-targeted” surgical biopsy is difficult. The aim was to evaluate the utility of image-guided “targeting” of small pulmonary nodules with methylene-blue before video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) biopsy. Eleven patients (8M:3F) with median (range) age of 48 (27-62) years with haematological malignancies (lymphoma, n=6, AML/MDS, n=3, ALL, n=1,Castleman's disease, n=1) were referred for VATS biopsy. Equal volume of iodinated contrast) was injected in the vicinity of the target lesion and along a track (including the pleural surface and the overlying chest wall), using a 20G needle. The platelet count, diameter of targeted nodules, “perpendicular” distance from the pleural surface and complications were recorded. Patients were transferred to surgery from the CT suite. The median (range) platelet count was 256×10⁹/L (54-453). The mean (range) diameter of targeted nodules was 12.5(5-22) mm and these were at a mean distance of 14.3±8.3mm from the pleural surface. Complications included small pneumothoracis in 4/11 (36%) patients and pain in 1/11 (9%). A definitive histopathological/microbiological diagnosis was achieved in 10/11 (91%) patients and included: organising pneumonia (n=4), respiratory bronchiolitis (n=2), Kaposi's sarcoma (n=1), mycobacterium fortuitum infection (n=1) and chronic GVHD (n=1). There were no cases of angioinvasive aspergillosis. This preliminary data suggest that pre-biopsy methylene-blue targeting of intrapulmonary lesions is a safe and promising technique for the diagnosis of indeterminate lung nodules in patients with haematological malignancy.