Efficacy of hydrogastric sonography and spiral Computed Tomography in staging of gastric carcinoma--a comparative study.

Objective: Accurate preoperative diagnosis and staging of patients with gastric cancer is essential for optimal treatment. The standard of care for staging gastric carcinoma is helical CT. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of hydrogastric sonography (HGS) with that of helical CT in the staging of patients with gastric carcinoma.

Methods: A total of 42 consecutive patients (29 men and 13 women) diagnosed with gastric carcinoma after endoscopy and biopsy were staged on the basis of TNM classification, preoperatively with HGS and helical CT and postoperatively with histopathologic examination (HPE). The findings of HGS and helical CT were compared with those on HPE with respect to TNM stage.

Results: Regarding T stage, the accuracy of HGS was 78.6% (kappa = 0.68) and that of helical CT was 66.7% (kappa = 0.48). In evaluating the nodal status, the accuracy of HGS was 66.7% (kappa = 0.52) and that of helical CT was 54.6% (kappa = 0.39). Regarding distant metastases, accuracy was the same with HGS and helical CT (accuracy 95.2%, kappa = 0.89).

Conclusions: When compared with HPE, HGS was found to be more accurate than helical CT for assessment of T and N staging. Sonographic and helical CT were equally accurate for the assessment of M stage.