The Role Of Spiral Computed Tomography And CD44_V6 Assay In Preoperative Staging For Gastric Carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the significance of the combination spiral computed tomography(sCT) and the expression of CD44v6 in preoperative staging for gastric carcinoma. Methods Triphasic incremental helical CT was performed in 48 cases with gastric carcinoma and the expression of CD44v6 of the surgically resected specimens in 47 cases was detected by immunohistochemistry methods. CT findings were compared with the histopathologic results. The expression of CD44v6 in 20 cases with benign gastric mucosa lesions was detected simultaneously. Results The accuracy of Triphasic incremental helical CT in T and N stage of gastric carcinoma were 74.5% and 64.4% respectively.The total accuracy in determining TNM-staging was 77. 8%.The expression of CD44v6 was significantly higher in gastric carcinoma(55.6%) than that in benign gastric mucosa disease(10%,p<0.01) and was related to TNM-staging(p<0.01) and lymph node metastasis(p<0.01). Conclusion Triphasic incremental helical CT as well as CD44v6 detection could be used to determine the preoperative TNM-staging of gastric carcinoma. Detection of CD44v6 maybe compensate for the N staging of CT. Thecombination of CT and CD44v6 maybe increase the accuracy of preoperative staging of gastric carcinoma.