Evaluation of multislice CT in diagnosis and T staging of advanced gastric carcinoma

Objective: To analyze CT finding of advanced gastric carcinoma on MSCT to evaluate the utility of tri-phase contrast enhancement technique with water opacyfied gastrointestinal ducts on the preoperative staging of gastric cancers.Methods: Fifty-six consecutive patients with endoscopic confirmed or clinical suspected gastric carcinoma were preoperatively evaluated with MSCT using the water-filling gastrointestine.Each case was staged according to the TNM classification system.All patients subsequently underwent surgery and got pathological results.Features of MSCT were compared with histologic staging of tumor invasion depth.Results: MSCT has detected all the 56 gastric lesions.Compared with histologic results,MSCT(achieved) correct T staging in 41 patients(73%).The accuracy、 sensitivity and specificity of MSCT for diagnosing involvement of tunica serosal were 89%,89.7% and 82%, respectively.Conclusions: The detection rate of triphasic enhanced MSCT to gastric carcinoma is very high.MSCT plays an important role in guiding surgical treatment especially after T staging.