Application of oral contrast trans-abdominal ultrasonography for initial screening of gastric cancer in rural areas of China.

BACKGROUND

The present study is aimed at assessing the efficacy of oral contrast trans-abdominal ultrasonography (OCTU) as an initial screening tool for gastric cancer in rural areas of China.

METHODS

All subjects that were enrolled from Chongming County, Shanghai, China. Subjects in the symptomatic group underwent both OCTU and gastroscopic biopsy. OCTU was performed by experienced ultrasonic physicians in a blinded fashion.

RESULTS

In the symptomatic group, 643 patients were enrolled; diagnoses included low risk diseases gastritis (68.9%), polyps (4.0%) and benign ulcers (8.7%), and high risk diseases intraepithelial neoplasia (1.9%), cancer (15.9%) and other lesions (0.6%). Abnormalities were detected by OCTU in 404 subjects (62.8%). High risk diseases were significantly correlated with objective OCTU parameters, including thickness of stomach wall, loss of stratification and hypoechoic mess. With the cut-off value of thickness being set at 7mm, the sensitivity and specificity of OCTU for detecting high risk diseases were 81.3% and 68.8%, respectively. When cut-off value of risk index based on OCTU parameters was set at 3 points, the sensitivity and specificity were 94.1% and 71.4%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

OCTU can detect high risk gastric diseases with high sensitivity and specificity providing an initial screening tool for gastric cancer.