Endosonography in gastric lymphoma and large gastric folds

To establish a correct preoperative differential diagnosis between gastric lymphoma and cancer is essential but can be difficult as endoscopic biopsies can sometimes provide a low diagnostic yield. By EUS, infiltrative carcinoma tends to show a vertical growth in the gastric wall, while lymphoma tends to show mainly a horizontal extension. EUS provides an accurate staging of gastric lymphoma, showing the exact level of infiltration and the presence of perigastric lymph nodes, thus the physician can obtain an accurate prognosis for each patient and select the best form of treatment accordingly. The response to chemoradiotherapy can also be investigated very accurately by EUS. Large gastric folds are seen in a great number of benign and malignant conditions. Diagnosis represents a clinical challenge because etiology may be extremely varied and standard biopsies are often inconclusive. Different diseases show different levels of infiltration of the gastric wall, thus a characteristic echo-pattern helps for the differential diagnosis. Endosonography, used always in combination with biopsy, allows to rule out malignancies and to select the most appropriate treatment for each patient (medical or surgical). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.