The role of EUS elastography-guided fine needle biopsy in the histological diagnosis of solid pancreatic lesions: a prospective exploratory study

This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of Endoscopic ultrasound elastography-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS-EG-FNB) for the diagnosis of pancreatic mass lesions. EUS-EG images were classified into heterogeneous and homogeneous groups. For the heterogeneous group, EUS-FNB was separately performed in both hard areas and soft areas. Only samples obtained during the first two passes (hard/soft areas) were used to compare the diagnostic accuracy as well as the quality and quantity of the specimens. We investigated the association of EUS-EG findings using strain histogram analysis with the histological findings. Fifty-five patients were enrolled including 25 patients with heterogeneous group. The homogeneous group had significantly lower mean strain value (hard) lesions. The adequate sampling rates from hard and soft areas were 88 and 92%, respectively (P = 0.6374). Comparison of the diagnostic accuracy and the quality and quantity of the histological core between hard and soft areas showed no significant differences. In pancreatic adenocarcinoma cases, the proportion of fibrous stroma in the core tissue was significantly correlated with the elasticity of the region. (R² = 0.1226: P = 0.0022) EUS-EG may reflect tissue composition in pancreatic tumors, however, EUS-EG did not affect either the quality and quantity of the tissues obtained. Clinical Trial Registry No: UMIN-000033073.