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Endosonographic staging of rectal carcinoma

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Abstract

Transrectal ultrasonography (US) scanning facilitates the ultrastructural differentiation of the various histologic layers of the rectal wall. In particular, the muscularis propria is represented by the 4th sonographic layer. Rectal carcinoma appears on US as a low echogenic area that suddenly interrupts the regular sequence of parietal layers.

Sixty-five patients suffering with carcinoma of the lower two-thirds of the rectum underwent pre-operative linear endosonography for staging. The reliability of such a method in assessing the extra-rectal spread was evaluated in our study, at the end of which 55 sonographic/histologic correlations were obtained. Four false-negative and 1 false-positive determinations of the presence or absence of extrarectal spread proved that sonography has a sensitivity and specificity of 91%, with a positive predictive value of 97% and a negative predictive value of 71%. Lower results are obtained in lymph node staging: enlarged lymph nodes are seen in only 11/22 C1/C2 patients (11 false negatives) while we were aware of 3 false positives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Clinical Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Giulio Di Candio, Franco Mosca, Alessandro Campatelli, Andrea Cei & Mauro Ferrari

  2. Institute of Pathologic Anatomy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Fulvio Basolo

Authors
  1. Giulio Di Candio
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  2. Franco Mosca
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  3. Alessandro Campatelli
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  4. Andrea Cei
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  5. Mauro Ferrari
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  6. Fulvio Basolo
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Di Candio, G., Mosca, F., Campatelli, A. et al. Endosonographic staging of rectal carcinoma. Gastrointest Radiol 12, 289–295 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01885164

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01885164

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