Is it worthwhile to fully evaluate the stomach in every ultrasound examination of the abdominal cavity?

To evaluate the usefulness of abdominal sonography in the fasting state with no hypotonic agents in the detection and exclusion of gastric lesions. One-hundred patients with normal upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. 94 patients with a major gastric abnormality [including 59 intraluminal tumors, three submucosal masses, 29 ulcers, two polyps and one hypertrophied gastric mucosa] and 75 patients with minor gastric abnormalities [mainly gastritis] were enrolled into the study. Of the 100 normal patients, ultrasound showed four false positive results with 96% specificity of the examination. Within the major gastric lesion group, ultrasound was true positive in 55 of 59 tumors, 15 of 29 ulcers, three of three submucosal masses and the case of giant gastric mucosa. It was negative in the detection of gastric polyps. It could detect only 8% of minor gastric abnormalities. Abdominal sonography in the fasting state. If carefully performed, is sufficiently accurate in detection and exclusion of major gastric lesions. Therefore, although it cannot replace endoscopic and barium studies of the stomach, careful evaluation of the stomach is recommended in every sonographic evaluation of the abdominal cavity

[Determination of Helicobacter pylori immunogenes using two- dimensional gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting]

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common infectious agents that colonizes in the mucus layer of stomach. This bacterium has been identified to be the etiologic agent of chronic active gastritis, peptic ulceration and gastric cancer. The present study was aimed to identify H. pylori immunogenes for clinical diagnisis of the infection in the above 3 groups of patients. H. pylori bacteria isolated from biopsy specimens of patients suffering from gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer were extracted in an extraction solution containing lysozyme, urea and CHAPS. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis were performed. The resolved proteins were transferred to PVDF membrane using tank blotting and their reaction with purified IgG fraction of the patients. Sera were determined by immunoblotting. The bacterial extract showed several hundreds of silver-stained spots with molecular weights [MW] ranging from 10 to 100 KDa and isoelectric points [pI] ranging from 3.5 to 9.5. This pattern contained 6-7 major proteins, some of which as protein groups consisted of several spots. The results of immunoblots revealed that several protein spots with different MW and pI, were stained with all three groups of patients. sera but some proteins were stained only with one or two groups of sera. The protein spot with MW of 30 KDa reacted with sera of only two groups of patients; gastritis and gastric cancer; the protein with MW of 18 KDa reacted only with sera of gastritis patients. These proteins can be potential candidates for recognition of the type of gastric disorder. In addition, the results indicated that protein profiles of H. pylori, isolated from gastric cancer and peptic ulcer, are more similar to each other, comparing to that of gastritis patients