[The CT aspects and pathological correlations in gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma]

CT morphology of malignant pathologies of the stomach was evaluated by filling the stomach with water. Fifty-three patients were examined who were affected with carcinoma, and 12 with lymphoma. Carcinomas either determined parietal thickening of 7 mm to 3 cm or appeared as endoluminal vegetations with a big implant base. Neoplastic tissue had higher density than adjacent gastric wall in 80% of the cases, and the same density in the extant 20%. Only mucinous carcinomas appeared as isodense, the other histological types being hyperdense. The patients with gastric lymphoma presented with small endoluminal vegetations or parietal thickening of 6 mm to 2 cm. Lymphomatous infiltrates had lower density than normal adjacent gastric wall in 65% of the cases, and the same density in the extant 35%. CT allowed even small lesions to be identified in malignant gastric diseases; nonetheless, the method is to be considered a complementary technique to conventional radiology or endoscopy. The attenuation value of parietal alterations helps distinguish gastric carcinomas from lymphomas, because of the hyperdense/hypodense aspect of the lesion. On the contrary, a gastric carcinoma or lymphoma cannot be diagnosed when the tumor has the same density as adjacent gastric wall.