Letter to the Editor: Diagnostic Value of Virtual Bronchoscopic Navigation in the Bronchial Tuberculosis-Induced Central Airway Stenosis

摘要

I was interested to read the paper by Cheng and colleagues that was published in the March 2020 edition of [ ]. Electronic bronchoscopy is invasive and may cause pain. The purpose of the authors was to explore the clinical value of virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) in the diagnosis of benign central airway stenosis (CAS) secondary to tracheobronchial tuberculosis (TBT). The location, length and diameter of stenosis of 68 patients with benign CAS caused by TBT were independently determined by VBN and electronic bronchoscopy (EOB). The sensitivity and specificity of VBN in identifying stenosis were assessed by EOB as the gold standard. The stenosis was graded into 0%, ≤ 25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, 76–90% and > 90%. They reported that the sensitivity of VBN in determining the degree of stenosis was 98.4%, 100.0%, 100%, 100%, 84.6% and 100%, respectively; the specificity was 91.5%, 96.1%, 97.1%, 97.1%, 97.1% and 97.3%, respectively. They concluded that VBN is helpful for the diagnosis of TBT-induced CBS and may provide important information on the location, length, diameter and cross-sectional area of stenosis for further EOB examination and interventional therapy.