Role of endosonography in the evaluation of gastric malignancies

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.