POSSIBILITIES OF TRANSABDOMINAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF GASTRIC AND COLON CANCER

Abstract

The article presents the results of transabdominal (TA) USG in the diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC) in 52 patients and colon cancer (CC) in 67 patients. GC at T2 stage was diagnosed in 5 (9.6±4.1%) cases, at T3 stage in 41 (78.9±5.7%) cases, at T4 stage in 6 (11.5±4.0%) cases and CC in 6 (9.0±3.5%), 49 (73.1±5.4%) and 12 (17.9±4.7%) cases, respectively. In 45 (86.5±4.7%) GC patients were manifested as irregular thickening of the affected wall, while in 7 (13.5±4.7%) patients it was a pseudo kidney symptom. In CC these ultrasonographic symptoms were recorded in 48 (71.6±5.5%) and 19 (28.4±5.5%) cases, respectively. It was found that the symptom of an irregular, localized thickening of the involved wall was significantly (p < 0.05) more prevalent in GC, whereas the symptom of “false kidney” (pseudokidney) was more commonly observed in CC. The polypoid form was observed in 5 (9.6±4.1%) and 6 (9.0±3.5%) cases, the ulcerative-infiltrative form in 41 (78.9±5.7%) and 49 (73.1±5.4%) cases, exophytic form in 6 (11.5±4.4%) and 12 (17.9±4.7%) cases in GC and CC, respectively. The ulcerative-infiltrative form of the tumor of both localizations was recorded significantly (p<0.001) more often than the polypoid and exophytic forms. In the diagnosis of GC the sensitivity of TAUSG was 90.4%, specificity 71.4%, accuracy 88.1%, and 86.6%, 63.6% and 83.3% in the diagnosis of CC, respectively. In conclusion, the results of the study suggest that transabdominal ultrasound is an inexpensive, noninvasive and informative method for screening patients for localization, spread and initial assessment of gastric and colon cancer.