Diagnosis of pancreatic tumors by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration

AIM: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fi ne-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for pancreatic solid tumors larger or smaller than 3 cm, and cystic lesions. METHODS: From January/1997 to December/2006, 611 patients with pancreatic tumors were subjected to EUS-FNA. The fi nal diagnosis was obtained either by surgery (356 cases) or after a mean clinical follow-up of 11.8 mo in the remaining patients. RESULTS: There were 405 solid tumors, 189 cystic lesions and 17 mixed. Pancreatic specimens for cytological assessment were successfully obtained by EUS-FNA in 595 (97.4/) cases. There were 352 (57.6/) malignancies and 259 (42.4/) benign tumors. Among the malignancies, pancreatic adenocarcinomas accounted for 67/ of the lesions. Overall, the sensitivity, specifi city, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy of EUS-FNA were, respectively, 78.4/, 99.2/, 99.3/, 77.2/ and 87.2/. Specif ically for solid tumors, the same parameters for neoplasms larger and smaller than 3 cm were, respectively, 78.8/ vs 82.4/, 100/ vs 98.4/, 100/ vs 99/, 54.8/ vs 74.1/ and 83.1/ vs 87.8/. For cystic lesions, the values were, respectively, 72.2/, 99.3/, 97.5/, 91/ and 92.2/. CONCLUSION: EUS-FNA can be used to sample pancreatic tumors in most patients. Even though the negative predictive value is inadequate for large solid tumors, the results are rather good for small solid tumors, especially concerning the sensitivity, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy. Among all pancreatic lesions, EUS-FNA for cystic lesions canreveal the best negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy, both higher than 90/.

Cyst fluid glucose: An alternative to carcinoembryonic antigen for pancreatic mucinous cysts

Pancreatic cystic lesions(PCLs) have been increasingly recognized in clinical practice. Although inflammatory cysts(pseudocysts) are the most common PCLs detected by cross-sectional imaging modalities in symptomatic patients in a setting of acute or chronic pancreatitis, incidental pancreatic cysts with no symptoms or history of pancreatitis are usually neoplastic cysts. For these lesions,it is imperative to identify mucinous cysts(intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms and mucinous cystic neoplasms) due to the risk of their progression to malignancy. However, no single imaging modality alone is sufficient for a definitive diagnosis of all PCLs. The cyst fluid obtained by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration provides additional information for the differential diagnosis of PCLs. Current recommendations suggest sending cyst fluid for cytology evaluation and measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen(CEA) levels. Unfortunately, the sensitivity of cytology is greatly limited, and cyst fluid CEA has demonstrated insufficient accuracy as a predictor of mucinous cysts. More recently, cyst fluid glucose has emerged as an alternative to CEA for distinguishing between mucinous and nonmucinous lesions. Herein, the clinical utility of cyst fluid glucose and CEA for the differential diagnosis of PCLs was evaluated.

Different options of endosonography-guided biliary drainage after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography failure

AIM To investigate the success rates of endosonography(EUS)-guided biliary drainage(EUS-BD) techniques after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography(ERCP) failure for management of biliary obstruction.METHODS From Feb/2010 to Dec/2016, ERCP was performed in 3538 patients, 24 of whom(0.68%) suffered failure to cannulate the biliary tree. All of these patients were initially submitted to EUS-guided rendez-vous(EUS-RV) by means of a transhepatic approach. In case of failure, the next approach was an EUS-guided anterograde stent insertion(EUS-ASI) or an EUS-guided hepaticogastrostomy(EUS-HG). If a transhepatic approach was not possible or a guidewire could not be passed through the papilla, EUS-guided choledochoduodenostomy(EUS-CD) was performed.RESULTS Patients were submitted to EUS-RV(7), EUS-ASI(5), EUS-HG(6), and EUS-CD(6). Success rates did not differ among the various EUS-BD techniques. Overall,technical and clinical success rates were 83.3% and 75%, respectively. Technical success for each technique was, 71.4%, 100%, 83.3%, and 83.3%, respectively(P = 0.81). Complications occurred in 3(12.5%) patients. All of these cases were managed conservatively, but one patient died after rescue percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage(PTBD).CONCLUSION The choice of a particular EUS-BD technique should be based on patient's anatomy and on whether the guidewire could be passed through the duodenal papilla.