Assessment of Resectability of Pancreatic Carcinoma by Endoscopic Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVE To study the value of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) in the preoperative assessment of resectability of pancreatic carcinoma.

METHODS Thirty-eight non-selected consecutive patients were prospectively Investigated using EUS to determine tumor resectability. The EUS findings in each of the patients were evaluated prospectively by 2 EUS specialists. All patients were explored and resectability determinded.

RESULTS Ten out of 38 cases with pancreatic carcinoma were considered to be resectable by EUS with a positive predictive value of 80% compared to findings with surgery. EUS also had a high correlation with surgical results in assessing unresectability of pancreatic carcinoma, the negative predictive-value was 96.4%. There were 2 false-positive and 1 false-negative assessments (sensitivity, 88.9% and specificity, 93.1%). The accuracy of EUS was the highest. The diagnostic accuracy of EUS, CT, MRI and sonography were 97.4%, 94.6%, 89.5%, and 73.6% respectively.

CONCLUSION Endoscopic ultrasonography is an effective method to assess resectability of pancreatic carcinoma.