FLORENCE – North Alabama Medical Center is the first in the Shoals Area to offer radial EBUS (endobronchial ultrasound) system to patients. This system’s ability to increase diagnostic yield during sampling, radial EBUS is recognized in the ACCP Lung Cancer Guidelines as an adjunct imaging mode for sampling peripheral nodules.
With new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force calling for more proactive lung cancer screening of long-term smokers, the need for reliable methods of assessing peripheral lung nodules is forecasted to increase. Radial EBUS supports a minimally invasive method for diagnosing peripheral lung nodules.
Advanced technology from Olympus enables physicians to reach and sample peripheral lung nodules suspected of malignancy.
Radial EBUS involves inserting a small ultrasound mechanical probe down the bronchoscope. The resulting real-time ultrasonic image is displayed on a monitor. Once the ultrasound probe is in the correct position to confirm the location of the target area, the probe is withdrawn and a biopsy sampling device is inserted down the scope to collect tissue samples for biopsy. The real-time visual confirmation of the target area using radial EBUS is proven to increase the diagnostic yield during sampling.
“We take pride in being able to offer our patients the latest technology and innovation for diagnosing cancers and other diseases of the airway and lungs,” says Russell Pigg, CEO at NAMC. “The radial EBUS system now allows our hospital to provide patients with the recommended minimally invasive option for sampling peripheral
Russell Pigg
lung nodules right here in the Shoals area.”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer-related deaths in the United States among every ethnic group, taking more lives than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. Unfortunately, only 15% of lung cancer is diagnosed at its earliest and most curable stage, and more than 55% of cases are diagnosed after the cancer has metastasized. In 2011, the National Lung Screening Trial found a mortality benefit of at least 20% in long-term smokers who underwent annual low-dose CT screening. Radial EBUS is a proven modality, either used solely or in tandem with other modalities, for helping to diagnose lung cancer and other diseases in the peripheral areas of the lung. It provides patients with a convenient, minimally invasive diagnostic procedure that can be performed on an outpatient basis.
By acquiring advanced technologies such as this radial EBUS system, North Alabama Medical Center is able to offer premier care for its patients.
Media Release/Randa Hovater
North Alabama Medical Center
