The utility of EUS and CEH-EUS in the diagnosis of small pancreatic tumors

Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is a highly sensitive diagnostic method for the detection of small pancreatic carcinomas. Recently, there have been some reports describing the utility of contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CEH-EUS) which uses sonographic contrast agent for differentiation of a pancreatic mass. A research team from Japan reported a case of small adenocarcinoma of the pancreas distinct from branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) in which investigation by EUS took place every 6 mo and diagnosis was made accurately by additional CEH-EUS during the follow-up of the branch duct IPMN.

Their study will be published on November 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Their results suggest that the performance of periodical EUS with CEH-EUS imaging during the follow-up of branch duct IPMN allowed the establishment of an accurate diagnosis of the disease.

Reference: Sakamoto H, Kitano M, Komaki T, Imai H, Kamata K, Kimura M, Takeyama Y, Kudo M. Small invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas distinct from branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(43): 5489-5492

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5489.asp

Correspondence to: Masayuki Kitano, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kinki University School of Medicine, 377-2, Ohno-Higashi, Osaka-Sayama 589-8511, Japan. m-kitano@med.kindai.ac.jp

Telephone: +81-72-3660221 Fax: +81-72-3672880

Source: World Journal of Gastroenterology