Table 1 Diagnostic yield of optimal inspective tests by guidance of the clinical pathway.

From: The efficiency of a clinical pathway to guide combined applications of interventional pulmonology in undiagnosed pleural effusions

Tests type of initial choice

Included cases

Positive cases

Diagnostic yield (%)

95% confidence interval (%)

χ2

p

Common bronchoscopy

282

206

73.05

67.88, 78.22

19.121

0.000

EBUS-TBNA

145

132

91.35

86.78, 95.92

0.434

0.510

Guided bronchoscopy

65

55

84.62

75.86, 93.38

0.851

0.354

Pulmonary TTCB

145

139

95.86

82.63, 99.09

5.537

0.019

Pleural CNB

22

20

90.91

78.90, 102.92

0.084

0.772

Medical thoracoscopy

216

192

88.89

84.70, 93.08

  
  1. The guiding techniques include radial endobronchial ultrasound, virtual bronchoscope navigation and fluoroscopy in guided bronchoscopy. TTCB denotes chest CT-assisted transthoracic core biopsy. CNB denotes ultrasound assisted cutting needle biopsy. The diagnostic yield of MT is compared with various interventional tests by the Chi-square test, and Pearson χ2 and probability values are listed; p < 0.05 denotes that the difference is significant statistically.
  2. Significant values are in italic.
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