Virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) can guide a bronchoscope under direct observation using virtual bronchoscopic images, VBN may be useful in diagnosing pulmonary lesions when combined with Endobronchial ultrasonography with a guide sheath(EBUS-GS). To evaluate the value of VBN-assisted EBUS-GS for diagnosing peripheral lung cancer.

All 385 patients with peripheral lung cancer diagnosed with HRCT(8 mm≤diameter≤30 mm)were randomly assigned to VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group, non-VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group or conventional bronchoscopy group.

Subjects for analysis include 294 patients diagnosed as primary lung cancer finally. There was no significant difference in the diagnostic yield between the VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group and the non-VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group(82.5%/81.3%, P>0.05), but compared with conventional bronchoscopy group, the VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group and the non-VBN-assisted EBUS-GS group had a significantly higher diagnostic yield(82.5%/81.3%/43.3%, P<0.05). The subgroup analysis showed that the following factors were associated with a significantly higher diagnostic yield: CT bronchus sign positivity, a lesion of >20 mm in diameter and a probe position that was within the lesion.

VBN-assisted EBUS-GS or EBUS-GS improves the diagnostic yield for peripheral lung cancer. The significant factors that were significantly associated with a successful diagnosis using EBUS-GS-guided TBB in peripheral lung cancer were as follows: CT bronchus sign positivity, a lesion of >20 mm in diameter and a probe position that was within the lesion.