A comparison of computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasonography in the preoperative staging of gastrointestinal cancers

Objective To investigate the clinical value of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and CT in preoperative staging of gastrointestinal cancers.Methods Forty three cases of gastrointestinal cancers were scanned by EUS and CT,then staged and compared with the pathological staging.Results For invasive layers (T stage), the accuracy of EUS was 88.4% (38/43) , and that of CT was 55.8% (24/43). For understage the accuracy of EUS and CT were 4.6% and 30.2% pespectively, whereas for overstage were 7% and 14% pespectively.For lymph nodes (N stage ), the sensitivity,spectivity,positive predicting value,negative predicting value for EUS and CT each were 89% vs 66%,71% vs 64%,86% vs 79%,and 77% vs 47% respectively.Conclusions EUS compared with CT was superior in regional preoperative staging for gastrointestinal cancer, including invasive layer and lymph node. EUS was a simple, safe,low cost and reliable method. Combined with CT scanning, it was helpful to assess an overall status of a patient and of importance to select a therapy.