Does percutaneous fine-needle aspiration biopsy aid in the diagnosis and surgical management of lung masses?
Percutaneous transthoracic FNAB should not be used routinely in the assessment of patients with lung masses who are medically fit to withstand surgery and are free of widespread disease. The results of FNAB do little to modify the course of surgical management in these patients.
Our preliminary results indicate that BNP is more sensitive to acute hemodynamic changes than NT-proBNP. This study also highlights limitations of both markers as surrogates of hemodynamics in critically ill acute heart failure patients.