Vacuum-Assisted Biopsy A Good Option For Fast Breast Tissues Clinical Assessment

When sampling breast tissue, research shows CT-guided vacuum-assisted biopsy is faster than using prone stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB). In a retrospective study, published in the American Journal of Roentgenology, researchers analyzed VAB results on women with mammographically-suspicious breast lesions using dedicated breast cone beam CT (CBCT) protocol. They assessed and compared technical success rates, total intervention time, and complications with CT-guided VAB and prone stereotactic VAB. Between June 2015 and March 2016, 65 patients with 68 lesions underwent image-guided VAB. Twenty-nine patients with 31 lesions had CT-guided VAB. Prone stereotactic VAB was performed on 36 patients with 37 lesions. Technical success rate occurs in 31 of 33 lesions (93.9%) with CT VAB and 37 of 38 lesions (97.9%) with prone stereotactic VAB. Mean total intervention time was 22.7 +/-8.4 minutes for CT-guided VAB and 28.8 +/- 9.4 minutes for prone stereotactic VAB.  Neither system had major complications. According to researchers, time to reidentifying and target lesions took about the same time, but tissue sampling is significantly faster with CT-guided VAB, making it more clinically feasible.