LONG‐TERM FOLLOW UP OF PATIENTS WITH SMALL GASTROINTESTINAL STROMAL TUMORS IN THE STOMACH USING ENDOSCOPIC ULTRASONOGRAPHY‐GUIDED FINE‐NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY

Background: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are one of the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. GIST are defined by positive immunohistochemical staining for KIT or CD34 and thus are generally diagnosed after surgery. Because small GIST are rarely diagnosed before surgery, the clinical course of these small tumors is not clear. The aim of the present study was to follow changes in size and configuration of small GIST that were pathologically confirmed using endoscopic ultrasonography‐guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (EUS‐FNAB). Methods: Between July 1997 and December 2003, 16 tumors in 16 patients (10 men and 6 women) with an immunohistochemical diagnosis of GIST were regularly followed in our hospital. The median patient age when EUS‐FNAB was performed was 62 years (range 26–82 years) and the median follow‐up period was 4.9 years (range 0.5–9.6 years). Results: Fourteen tumors showed no remarkable changes in size and shape during follow up compared with the initial diagnosis. Two tumors enlarged: one tumor approximately doubled its diameter in 8 years and the other tumor increased from 1.8 cm at diagnosis to up to 10 cm after only 2 years. Doubling time of the latter tumor was calculated as 3.1 months. Conclusions: We conclude that EUS‐FNAB might be a good modality for final diagnosis of GIST without surgery, and that GIST without rapid growth on follow up can be endoscopically followed.     

Preduodenal mechanisms in initiating gallbladder emptying in man

The existence of preduodenal phases of gallbladder emptying in normal volunteers was investigated by evaluating the effect of sham feeding a sandwich (chew and spit) (n = 15), the sight and smell of food followed by sham feeding a cooked meal (n = 15), and gastric distension (intragastric balloon tube) (n = 9) on gallbladder emptying and comparing these responses with those after ingestion of a standard meal (n = 14). A control group given no intestinal stimuli were studied to determine the frequency of spontaneous emptying during fasting (n = 18). 99mTc-EHIDA (2,6 diethylphenylcarbamoylmethyliminodiacetic acid) was used as the biliary tracer. The frequency of gallbladder emptying during fasting was 0.0045/min. Thus, in any 20 min period emptying occurred spontaneously in only about 1 in 11 volunteers. Significant emptying (greater than 5 per cent over 20 min) occurred in 8 out of 15 volunteers after sham feeding a sandwich (P less than 0.001 versus control), in 8 out of 15 volunteers after sham feeding a cooked meal (P = 1.0 versus sandwich sham feed, n.s.), in 6 out of 9 volunteers after gastric distension (P less than 0.001 versus control) and in 14 out of 14 volunteers after meal ingestion. The rate of emptying was significantly greater in the gastric distension and meal ingestion groups compared with other groups (P less than 0.05). However, the emptying rate after sham feeding was not significantly different from spontaneous gallbladder emptying (P greater than 0.05, n.s.). There was no significant difference in time to onset of emptying between the four stimulus groups (P greater than 0.05, n.s.). These results suggest that pre-duodenal stimuli can evoke gallbladder emptying in man, although the precise physiological significance of this phenomenon remains to be established.