Liver biopsy: Analysis of results of two specialist teams

Table 1 Details of the techniques adopted for liver biopsy by the two teams

	Gastroenterology team	Interventional radiology team
Needle charac- teristics	Menghini modified type needle 16 G (9 cm)	Menghini type needle semiautomatic, modified 18 G (15 cm)
Method	US-assisted	US-guided
Approach	Intercostal	Subcostal

US: Ultrasonography.

Table 2 Patient characteristics in the two groups

Group	Team G	Team IR	P
Male sex, % (number/total)	60% (101/167)	42% (25/59)	0.021
AGE, years, median (range)	50.5 (16-70)	52 (19-73)	0.41
BMI, median (range)	24 (17-36)	24 (18-41)	0.94
PLATELETS/mm3, median (range)	199000 (77000-797000)	204000 (65000-394000)	0.65
INR, median (range)	1 (0.86-1.44)	1.02 (0.87-1.94)	0.24
Complications, % (number/total)	9.5% (16/167)	17% (10/59)	0.15

M: Male; BMI: Body mass index; INR: International normalized ratio; IR: Interventional radiology.

Table 3 Occurrence of adverse events following liver biopsy by setting and team performing the procedure

	Regular admission	Dayhospital	Team G	Team IR
Total number of adverse events	13	13	16	10
Pain moderate to severe % (number/total)	77% (10/13)	70% (9/13)	68% (11/16)	80% (8/10)
Relevant biochem- ical abnormalities1 % (number/total)	15% (2/13)	31% (4/13)	25% (4/16)	20% (2/10)
Nausea/vomiting % (number/total)	7% (1/13)	(0/13)	6% (1/16)	(0/10)

¹Mild increase of white blood cells (4 cases); mild hemoglobin decrease < 2 mg/dL from baseline (1 case); thrombocytopenia (1 case). IR: Interventional radiology.

Table 4 Characteristics of bioptic samples

Number of bioptic samples	G Team167	IR Team59	P = NA
Samples adequate for diagnosis % (number/total)	96.4% (161/167)	91.5% (54/59)	0.16
Sample length1 mean ± SD	22 mm ± 8.8	15 mm ± 6.5	< 0.0001
Number of portal tract per sample2 mean ± SD	9.5 ± 4.8	7.8 ± 4.1	0.0192

¹Evaluation performed on 215 (161 by G team, 54 by IR), considered to be adequate for diagnosis;

²Evaluation performed on 205 samples (151 by G team, 54 by IR). NA: not applicable; IR: Interventional radiology.