Huo J, et al. - A total of 344,510 subjects aged 55 to 77 years were examined to estimate the complication rates and the later medical costs linked to invasive diagnostic procedures performed for the classification of lung abnormalities in the community setting. They observed a 22.2% complication rate among candidates who belonged to the young age group while it was 23.8% for those in the Medicare group. These rates were about twice as high as those recorded in the National Lung Screening Trial (9.8% and 8.5%, respectively). The mean incremental complication costs were $6,320 for minor complications and $56,845 for major complications. This implied that the rates of complications after invasive diagnostic procedures were higher than the rates described in clinical trials.