Diagnostic Yield of Transbronchial Cryobiopsies for the Diagnosis of Rejection in Lung Transplant Patients

Transbronchial biopsy (TBB) using forceps is the standard procedure to establish the presence of allograft rejection after lung transplantation. However, inadequate tissue samples, high degree of interobservers variability and possible complications seems to prevent many centers in scheduling TBB in lung transplant follow-up. Despite transbronchial cryobiopsies (TCB) yield large specimens, few studies addressed the use of this technique. We aimed to analyze the diagnostic yield and complications rate of TCB in a surveillance program for lung transplant patients.