Diagnostic modality used for tissue diagnosis of PLCH in five large studies
| Basset 19781 | Friedman 19812 | Travis 19933 | Delobbe 19964 | Vassallo 20025 | |
| Total number of pathologically confirmed PLCH cases | 78 | 100 | 48 | 25 | 102 |
| Surgical lung biopsy | 62 | 100 | 42 | 24 | 94 |
| Lobectomy | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Transbronchial biopsy | 1 | 0 | 4* | 1 | 6† |
| CT-guided core biopsy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Langerhans cells (CD1a-positive) in BAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Biopsies of other organs | 21 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |