Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is a highly sensitive diagnostic method for the detection of small pancreatic carcinomas. Recently, there have been some reports describing the utility of contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CEH-EUS) which uses sonographic contrast agent for differentiation of a pancreatic mass.
A research team from Japan reported a case of small adenocarcinoma of the pancreas distinct from branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) in which investigation by EUS took place every 6 mo and diagnosis was made accurately by additional CEH-EUS during the follow-up of the branch duct IPMN.
Their study will be published on November 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Their results suggest that the performance of periodical EUS with CEH-EUS imaging during the follow-up of branch duct IPMN allowed the establishment of an accurate diagnosis of the disease.
Reference: Sakamoto H, Kitano M, Komaki T, Imai H, Kamata K, Kimura M, Takeyama Y, Kudo M. Small invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas distinct from branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(43): 5489-5492
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5489.asp
Correspondence to: Masayuki Kitano, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kinki University School of Medicine, 377-2, Ohno-Higashi, Osaka-Sayama 589-8511, Japan. m-kitano@med.kindai.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-72-3660221 Fax: +81-72-3672880
About World Journal of Gastroenterology
World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
Journal
World Journal of Gastroenterology