Comparison of Different Techniques of Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Biopsy of Liver in a Swine Model

The quality of liver biopsy specimens obtained with different fine needle biopsy (FNB) techniques has not been compared. This study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic quality of three different liver FNB biopsy techniques. Two sequential biopsy series were performed on piglets. Three biopsy techniques were compared: capillary-FNB, core-FNB (CFNB) and vacuum-assisted CFNB (VACFNB) in a swine model. Initially, 30 liver biopsies were performed (ten for each technique). The cellularity and quantity of blood in specimens were measured and compared. In the second series, 54 additional biopsies using CFNB and VACFNB techniques (27 each) in a separate piglet were evaluated in the same fashion. In the first series, cellularity and blood levels were significantly lower in capillary-FNB compared with CFNB (P < 0.001 and P = 0.011, respectively). There was no significant difference between CFNB and VACFNB in cellularity and blood (P = 0.15 and P = 0.1, respectively). In the second series, cellularity was significantly higher in CFNB compared with VACFNB (P < 0.001) with no significant difference in blood (P = 0.5). Among these three different FNB techniques, CFNB technique provided the greatest cellularity. Capillary-FNB technique was inferior among all with the lowest quality of obtained material for cytopathological interpretation.