Fine-needle biopsy in focal liver lesions: the usefulness of a screening programme and the role of cytology and microhistology.

We evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of 244 ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsies (FNB) in 226 patients with suspected liver malignancies. A malignancy was detected in 166 cases (73%) -145 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), 21 metastases; benign lesions were aspirated in 60 cases (27%). The sensitivity of FNB was 93%, with 100% specificity. In the FNB false-negative cirrhotic nodules, a final diagnosis of HCC was reached on repeating the biopsy 1-8 months later. When both cytological and microhistological examinations were performed, the positive correlation between the two techniques was 80%, with a slightly higher sensitivity for microhistology (93%). The malignancies diagnosed were potentially resectable in 26% of cases. We experienced 1 acute complication of FNB and 1 case of needle tract tumour seeding. These results confirm that FNB is useful in diagnosing malignant liver tumours. We believe that US-guided FNB is the first-choice invasive technique for assessing focal benign lesions and malignant tumors in the liver.