The role of multislice computed tomography in the diagnosis of gastric malignant tumors

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) in the diagnosis and staging of gastric malignant tumors.Patients and methods This study included 40 patients who were highly suspected clinically and/or known cases of gastric tumors referred for MSCT examination and evaluation. The MSCT data were correlated and compared with histopathological results.Results Of those 40 patients, 39 were confirmed histopathologically to have malignant gastric tumor (39/40) (97.5%). Of those 39 patients, 36 were depicted using MSCT (36/39) with 92.3% sensitivity, and only three cases were underestimated as T0 (false negative) with MSCT. Those 39 patients were staged histopathologically as follows: T1, 10 patients; T2, nine patients; T3, six patients; and T4, 14 patients. Gastric tumor staging was also performed through MSCT, which had higher sensitivity in depiction and accurate staging of T4 (12/14) (85.7%) and T3 (5/6) (83.3%) in comparison with T2 (5/9) (55.6%) and T1 (5/10) (50%) staging. MSCT had 83.3% sensitivity in N0 staging, 60% in N1 staging, and 50% in N2 staging.Conclusion MSCT can provide valuable additional information and improve the detection and staging of both early and advanced gastric neoplasm. MSCT offers high diagnostic accuracy in tumor detection and staging of lymph node metastasis, and high reliable information as regards secondary tumors. MSCT is a valuable tool for monitoring response to treatment and post-treatment evaluation of gastric neoplasm.