Abstract

Objectives: Fiberoptic bronchoscopy is considered to be the 'gold standart' technique that allows direct visualization of the airway lumen and mucosa. It was found that virtual bronchoscopy is highly accurate in the detection of central airway stenosis and correlated closely with FOB in grading tracheobronchial stenosis. This study explores the utility of VB to evaluate various tracheobronchial lesions and grading stenosis using FOB as the standart of reference.

Methods: The population of this prospective study was 42 patients examined in our department between November 2013 and February 2014. The presence or absence of the endoluminal lesions, obstructive lesions, external compressions and mucosal changes were recorded. Also anatomical variations and diverticulas were noted on both VB and FOB. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated with 2x2 contingency tables.

Results: A sum of 1115 airway segment of 42 patients were evaluated. The sensitivity and specifity values for diagnosis of obstructive lesions was 88,8% and 96,7%, for detection of endoluminal lesions 66,6% and 92,3, % and for mucosal changes they were 41,1% and 96%. 2 of the patients had diverticula according to VB and couldn't be seen by FOB. All of the anatomical variations were depicted on both VB and FOB.

Conclusions: In selected patients whom cannot tolerate or have contraindications for FOB, VB can be used as an initial method. Future investigation by developing large scale studies will likely lead to wider acceptance of this method, including to its use as a complementary method with FOB.

Keywords: Bronchoscopy, Computerized tomography, Fiberoptic, Virtual.

Graphical Abstract