The aims of this study were to stage gastric malignancies and differentiate
between carcinomas and lymphomas. Twenty-two patients were evaluated with
endosonography Tumoral infiltration depth (T stage) and presence of metasta
tic lymph nodes (N stage) were investigated. Five percent of the cases were
staged as T2, 36% as T3, and 59% as T4 According to the endosonographic ex
amination, 14% were N0, 68% were N1, and 18% were N2 malignancies. When com
pared with results of surgery and histopathologic examination, the accuracy
was 82% for both T and N stages. It can be concluded that endosonography i
s a valuable imaging modality for the local staging of gastric malignancies
. Early stage lymphomas can be differentiated from carcinomas, but in advan
ced stages both have similar appearance.