Z Gastroenterol 2009; 47 - A97
DOI: 10.1055/s-0029-1224076

Imaging of the GIST

Á Szilvás 1, G Székely 2, I Berki 3
  • 1Szt. János Hospital Gastroenterology, Budapest, 1025. Diós árok u. 1.
  • 2Szt. János Hospital Gastroenterology, Budapest, 1025. Diós árok u. 1.
  • 3Szt. János Hospital Surgical Dept., Budapest, 1025. Diós árok u. 1.

Introduction: Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) are mesenchímal tumours of the digestive tract. These tumours represent 0.1–3% of all gastrointestinal neoplasms. These tumors can arise anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract, but most often in the stomach (70%). They are diagnosed sometimes as accidentally findings, but in the other cases they occour as urgent problems in the gastroenterology such as abdominal pain and bleeding. 10–30% of the newly diagnosed GIST are malignant. The imaging methods can predict the answer for these questions and help the managment of the following strategies in this type of the gastrointestinal tumours.

Patient and methods: 62 years old man admitted to our Hospital with rectal hematochesia. In the previous anamnestic data were negative, he hadn't any complaints before this problem. His abdominal status was normal. The upper endoscopy was performed, and detected a giant intraluminal tumor in the corpus region of the stomach, with ulceration on the surface. Biopsies and aspiration cytology were taken. Because the huge size, the ulcerations suggested malignant potential. Ultrasound examination was performed. The abdominal ultrasonography showed an inhomogen hepar, cholelithiasis and an solid mass in the epigastrial region with 52×48×50mm sizes, circle-type, somewhere irregular border. At the distal part of the stomach the structure of the tumour was inhomogen with vascularisation. The ultrasonography signs predicted the malignancy of the abdominal mass.

Results: The incidental upper gastrointestinal tumours can be visualised by abdominal ultrasonography. In these cases by routine ultrasound examinations we can detect the localisation, the origin, and we can predict the benign or malignant potential and prevent the urgent problems.