ArticleJournal of cardiothoracic surgery2026
Safety and feasibility of bronchoscopic indocyanine green-methylene blue versus CT-guided autologous blood-methylene blue localization for pulmonary nodules: a propensity score-matched analysis.
Article in Journal of cardiothoracic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPreoperative localization may facilitate intraoperative identification of selected small, subsolid, or poorly palpable pulmonary nodules during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). This study compared the safety and feasibility of bronchoscopic indocyanine green plus methylene blue (ICG + MB) localization with CT-guided autologous blood plus methylene blue (blood + MB) localization.
methodsThis single-center retrospective study included patients who underwent preoperative localization for selected pulmonary nodules between October 2019 and October 2025. Propensity score matching with replacement was performed using age, sex, body mass index, nodule size, and shortest distance to the pleura as covariates. Outcomes included localization success, post-localization pneumothorax, intraoperative visibility score (0-5), and localization time. Firth logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with post-localization pneumothorax.
resultsAfter matching, 17 patients in the bronchoscopic ICG + MB group and 41 unique patients in the CT-guided blood + MB group were analyzed. Localization success rates were comparable (94.1% vs. 90.2%, p = 1.000), and visibility scores did not differ significantly (p = 0.210). Pneumothorax occurred in 22.0% of the CT-guided group and in none of the bronchoscopic group (p = 0.047). CT-guided localization (OR = 9.85, 95% CI: 1.09-1307.06; p = 0.039) and WBC count (OR = 1.46, 95% CI:1.03-2.24; p = 0.036) were associated with pneumothorax. The model yielded an AUC of 0.810.
conclusionsIn this matched cohort, bronchoscopic ICG + MB localization showed localization success and intraoperative visibility comparable to CT-guided blood + MB localization. Pneumothorax occurred less frequently in the bronchoscopic group. Bronchoscopic localization may represent a feasible airway-based option for selected nodules when preoperative localization is considered necessary and avoidance of pleural puncture is preferred.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.