Standardized terminology in endoscopic ultrasound

Standardized terminology is a prerequisite for meaningful collaboration and communication. This issue has been addressed for regular gastrointestinal endoscopy, through the OMED terminology and minimal standard terminology (MST) for endoscopic reporting. However, no similar initiative was taken for endoscopic ultrasound, although the need for a specific reporting language may be even greater for ultrasound investigations. This report describes the process and results of 'The International Working Group for Minimal Standard Terminology in Gastrointestinal Endosonography'. The resulting 'Minimal standard terminology in gastrointestinal endosonography' is presently available in a 1.0 version, and will now be subjected to clinical testing to further improve the selection and definition of core terms. It is reasonable to expect a fusion of this Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) terminology with the general endoscopy MST terminology in the near future, to supply software developers with a joint standardized terminology.