CT-Guided aspiration biopsy of infected aortic graft in a patient with hypertrophic osteoarthropathy: Saline injection to improve diagnostic yield - A case report

Abstract

Unilateral hypertrophic osteoarthropathy can be a diagnostic clue to chronic infection of an aortic graft and aorto-enteric fistula. In a 62-year-old woman, non-invasive diagnostic procedures failed to prove the infection. CT-guided fine needle biopsy revealed the pathogens prompting re-intervention. The biopsy result was markedly improved by injecting physiologic saline into the perigraft tissue.