Focal or diffuse "fullness" of the pancreas on CT. Usually benign, but EUS plus/minus FNA is warranted to identify malignancy.

CONTEXT: The role of EUS to evaluate subtle radiographic abnormalities of the pancreas is not well defined. OBJECTIVE: To assess the yield of EUS+/-FNA for focal or diffuse pancreatic enlargement/fullness seen on abdominal CT scan in the absence of discrete mass lesions. DESIGN: Retrospective database review. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Six hundred and 91 pancreatic EUS exams were reviewed. Sixty-nine met inclusion criteria of having been performed for focal enlargement or fullness of the pancreas. Known chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic calcifications, acute pancreatitis, discrete mass on imaging, pancreatic duct dilation (greater than 4 mm) and obstructive jaundice were excluded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENT: Rate of malignancy found by EUS+/-FNA. RESULTS: FNA was performed in 19/69 (27.5%) with 4 new diagnoses of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, one metastatic renal cell carcinoma, one metastatic colon cancer, one chronic pancreatitis and 12 benign results. Eight patients had discrete mass lesions on EUS; two were cystic. All malignant diagnoses had a discrete solid mass on EUS. CONCLUSIONS: Pancreatic enlargement/fullness is often a benign finding related to anatomic variation, but was related to malignancy in 8.7% of our patients (6/69). EUS should be strongly considered as the next step in the evaluation of patients with focal enlargement of the pancreas when clinical suspicion of malignancy exists.

Circumferential ablation of Barrett's esophagus that contains high-grade dysplasia: a U.S. Multicenter Registry.

BACKGROUND: The management strategies for Barrett's esophagus (BE) that contains high-grade dysplasia (HGD) include intensive endoscopic surveillance, photodynamic therapy, thermal ablation, EMR, and esophagectomy. OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and effectiveness of endoscopic circumferential balloon-based ablation by using radiofrequency energy for treating BE HGD. DESIGN: Multicenter U.S. registry. SETTING: Sixteen academic and community centers; treatment period from September 2004 to March 2007. PATIENTS: Patients with histologic evidence of intestinal metaplasia (IM) that contained HGD confirmed by at least 2 expert pathologists. A prior EMR was permitted, provided that residual HGD remained in the BE region for ablation. INTERVENTION: Endoscopic circumferential ablation with follow-up esophageal biopsies to assess the histologic response to treatment. OUTCOMES: Histologic complete response (CR) end points: (1) all biopsy specimen fragments obtained at the last biopsy session were negative for HGD (CR-HGD), (2) all biopsy specimens were negative for any dysplasia (CR-D), and (3) all biopsy specimens were negative for IM (CR-IM). RESULTS: A total of 142 patients (median age 66 years, interquartile range [IQR] 59-75 years) who had BE HGD (median length 6 cm, IQR 3-8 cm) underwent circumferential ablation (median 1 session, IQR 1-2). No serious adverse events were reported. There was 1 asymptomatic stricture and no buried glands. Ninety-two patients had at least 1 follow-up biopsy session (median follow-up 12 months, IQR 8-15 months). A CR-HGD was achieved in 90.2% of patients, CR-D in 80.4%, and CR-IM in 54.3%. LIMITATIONS: A nonrandomized study design, without a control arm, a lack of centralized pathology review, ablation and biopsy technique not standardized, and a relatively short-term follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic circumferential ablation is a promising modality for the treatment of BE that contains HGD. In this multicenter registry, the intervention safely achieved a CR for HGD in 90.2% of patients at a median of 12 months of follow-up.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration for non-small cell lung cancer staging: A systematic review and metaanalysis.

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a minimally invasive alternative technique for mediastinal staging of non-small cell lung cancer. A metaanalysis was performed to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA for staging mediastinal lymph nodes (N2/N3 disease) in patients with lung cancer. METHODS: Relevant studies were identified using Medline (1966 to November 2005), CINAHL, and citation indexing. Included studies used histology or adequate clinical follow-up (> 6 months) as the "gold standard," and provided sufficient data for calculating sensitivity and specificity. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves metaanalysis was performed to estimate the pooled sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: In 18 eligible studies, EUS-FNA identified 83% of patients (95% confidence interval [CI], 78 to 87%) with positive mediastinal lymph nodes (pooled sensitivity) and 97% of patients (95% CI, 96 to 98%) with negative mediastinal lymph nodes (pooled specificity). In eight studies that were limited to patients who had abnormal mediastinal lymph nodes seen on CT scans, the sensitivity was 90% (95% CI, 84 to 94%) and the specificity was 97% (95% CI, 95 to 98%). In patients without abnormal mediastinal lymph nodes seen on CT scans (four studies), the pooled sensitivity was 58% (95% CI, 39 to 75%). Minor complications were reported in 10 cases (0.8%). There were no major complications. CONCLUSIONS: EUS-FNA is a safe modality for the invasive staging of lung cancer that is highly sensitive when used to confirm metastasis to mediastinal lymph nodes seen on CT scans. In addition, among lung cancer patients with normal mediastinal adenopathy seen on CT scans, despite lower sensitivity, it has the potential to prevent unnecessary surgery in a large proportion of cases missed by CT scanning.

Endoscopic therapy for upper-GI vascular ectasias.

BACKGROUND: Upper-GI vascular ectasias, including angiodysplasia and gastric antral vascular ectasia may present with either acute or chronic bleeding. Endoscopic thermal modalities have been used to control acute bleeding and reduce transfusion requirements. METHODS: Endoscopic experience was reviewed for a 6-year period during which 32 patients requiring blood transfusions for upper-GI angiodysplasia or gastric antral vascular ectasia were evaluated. Patients seen during the first 5 years were treated with either Nd:YAG laser photocoagulation or multipolar electrocoagulation. During the most recent 12 months, all patients were treated by argon plasma coagulation. Response to therapy was assessed by change in mean Hb and transfusion requirements. RESULTS: Overall, 16 patients were treated by laser photoablation alone; 9, argon plasma coagulation with or without laser; and 7, multipolar electrocoagulation with or without laser. Mean follow-up for all patients was 19 months. After therapy, mean Hb concentration rose from 76 to 114 g/L for patients with gastric antral vascular ectasia and from 85 to 118 g/L for those with angiodysplasia. Endoscopic therapy abolished or reduced transfusion requirements in 93% of patients with gastric antral vascular ectasia and 76% with angiodysplasia. Patients with gastric antral vascular ectasia required a mean of 6 treatment sessions, while those with angiodysplasia required one to two sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic thermal ablation effectively controls acute bleeding and reduces transfusion requirements in most patients with upper-GI vascular ectasias. Patients with gastric antral vascular ectasia require significantly more treatment sessions to achieve this effect.