An ultrasonically actuated fine needle enhances biopsy sample yield

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is a well-known procedure employed in the diagnostics of various tissue pathologies. Despite the common use of fine-needles in biopsy, substantial limitations related to the yield insufficiency of the biopsy sample still remain. In this study, we employed a custom-made ultrasonic device operating at 33 kHz to induce flexural standing waves in a standard 21 G medical needle. This was followed by obtaining tissue samples with the method we call ultrasound-enhanced FNAB (USeFNAB) in different bovine tissues ex vivo. We demonstrated that the yield of USeFNAB was on average up to 3-6 x compared to the yield obtained with the FNAB approach. Histologically relevant structures were detected under microscopy in samples obtained with both techniques. USeFNAB represents a promising candidate for resolving the issue of sample insufficiency, which largely limits the reliability of the FNAB approach.