[The clinical value of miniature ultrasonic probes on diagnosis and treatment of digestive tract diseases].

Objective: To investigate the clinical value of miniature ultrasonic probes (MUP) in the diagnosis and treatment of digestive tract diseases.

Methods: 537 patients who were indicated for endoscopic ultrasorography (EUS) underwent EUS with 7.5 - 20 MHz MUP and double-cavity electronic endoscope. According to the diagnoses of MUP, those patients who presented the indication of treatment were treated by endoscopic resection or surgical excision respectively, the postoperative histological results were compared with the preoperative diagnoses of MUP. A follow-up with MUP was periodically made for a few patients without endoscopic resection or surgical excision.

Results: Among the 537 patients the diagnosis of gastrointestinal submucosal lesions was made in the 256 cases, polyp in 56 cases, inflammatory prominence in 37 cases, extrinsic compression 53 cases, digestive tract cancer 50 cases, peptic ulcer 17 cases, cholecystolithiasis 11 cases, chronic pancreatitis in 8 cases, and achalasia 2 cases and 47 cases were diagnosed as normal, After examination of MUP, 220 patients were treated by endoscopic resection or surgical excision respectively, the postoperative histological results of 211 patients were completely consistent with the preoperative diagnosis of MUP, and diagnostic accuracy of MUP was 95.9%. The result of follow-up with MUP indicated that gastrointestinal leiomyoma, lipoma, phlebangioma and cyst were unchanged within 1 - 2 years. The patients who were treated by endoscopic resection or centesis showed no complication.

Conclusion: EUS with MUP is a valuable method in diagnosis of gastrointestinal submucosal lesions, staging of digestive tract cancer and diagnosis of biliary-pancreatic diseases. It plays a very important role for making scientific, effective, safe and economic therapeutic plan.