Endosonographic evaluation of hypertrophied gastric folds using curved array trasducer

Back ground and study aims: Hypertrophied gastric folds are frequent findings on the radiologic and endoscopic examination. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) was performed for those patients to determine the diagnostic usefulness of EUS in the evaluation of hypertrophied gastric folds. Patients and Methods: Participants were 42 patients with hypertrophied gastric folds visualized by endoscopic examination. EUS was carried out by single endosonographer using curved array transducer with frequency 7.5MHz. Results: EUS examination revealed normal gastric wall thickness with intact wall layers in 20/42 patients and hypoechoic thickening of gastric wall with or without loss of echo layers in the 22/42 (16 had adnocarcinoma, 3 had lymphoma, 2 had maltoma and 1 had eosinophilic gastroenteritis). Conclusion: EUS is very usefull in the evaluation of hypertrophied gastric folds because it has excellent accuracy in the detection of abnormally thickened gastric wall, but it has limited capability in differentiation between benign and malignant condition responsible for gastric wall thickness.