Comparison of Transbronchial, Cryoprobe, and VATS Biopsy for the Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease

This is a prospective cohort study in which 20 subjects that have suspected ILD who are undergoing non-emergent surgical biopsy will be enrolled. Patients who have been referred to the thoracic surgery service for VATS biopsy to diagnose suspected ILD and meet basic inclusion/exclusion criteria will be approached by the study investigators and informed of the study. An informed consent will be obtained during the clinic visit with the thoracic surgeon. At the beginning of the surgical procedure, under general anesthesia in the operating room, patients will undergo flexible bronchoscopy through the endotracheal tube and obtain 10 standard transbronchial biopsies (S-TBBx) and 5 Cryoprobe biopsies (C-TBBx) with fluoroscopic guidance. S-TBBx will be performed using standard biopsy forceps (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA) - 2.0mm diameter. C-TBBx will be performed using the cryoprobe (ERBE, Tubingen, Germany) -1.9 mm diameter, 78cm in length. This cryoprobe is routinely used in the bronchoscopy suite for other applications such as foreign body removal and local treatment of carcinoma; therefore it is a technique already employed by the interventional pulmonologists who are familiar with its use. Once the biopsies are obtained by the interventional pulmonologist, the thoracic surgeon will perform video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy (VATS) biopsy. Following their procedure, subjects will be monitored in the post-anesthesia care unit as per standard of care. As part of their ongoing follow-up care, all subjects will be monitored for any adverse events that may have resulted from either the surgical or bronchoscopic procedure, specifically bleeding or pneumothorax. All biopsy samples will be analyzed by a specialist in pulmonary pathology. The number and size of all biopsies, architectural preservation of the airways/alveoli, and pathological diagnosis will be reported by the pathologist. Diagnostic yield will be calculated for each biopsy technique and compared