Comparison of histological sample volumes among various endoscopic ultrasound-guided biopsy needles

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) enables easy and accurate pathological assessment. Here, we compared and assessed the area of samples on glass slides for three needle types: a 19-gauge Franseen needle (Acquire, Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA), a 22-gauge Franseen needle, and a 19-gauge fine-needle aspiration (FNA) needle (EZ Shot 3 Plus; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). Among patients with suspected pancreatic cancer, with a ≥20 mm tumor located in the pancreatic body and tail, and who underwent EUS-FNA or FNB between June 2018 and March 2020, 10 were randomly selected to test each needle. The areas of histological tissue and blood clot samples were measured using the BZ-X800 imaging software (Keyence Corporation, Osaka, Japan). Baseline patient characteristics and pathological sample data showed no significant differences among the needles. The 19-gauge Franseen needle obtained significantly more histological tissue samples than the 19-gauge conventional needle (p = 0.010) and 22-gauge Franseen needle (p = 0.008). Conversely, there was no significant difference between the 19-gauge conventional needle and 22-gauge Franseen needle (p = 0.838) in this regard. The 19-gauge Franseen needle could collect more samples than the other needles, contributing to giving a more precise pathological diagnosis and more information, including genomic profiling.