[Gastric lymphomas. The role of echotomography]

Even after the advent of endoscopic ultrasonography, conventional US can still be useful in the follow-up of advanced gastric lymphomas. Typical US pattern is (diffuse) hypoechoic thickening of the gastric wall. The conventional US findings, together with the barium examination, the endoscopic, histological and CT results were retrospectively (5 patients) and prospectively (5 patients) evaluated and compared of 10 patients with primary (n = 4) or secondary gastric lymphomas. Normal US gastric thickness was assessed as less than or equal to 7 mm. Four unresectable patients with secondary non-Hodgkin lymphomas underwent chemotherapy; their conventional US follow-up has been shown to correspond to CT findings and endoscopically-guided biopsies. Preliminary results show that increased echogenicity and reduced thickness in conventional US scans correspond to regression of the disease. The maximum gastric wall thickness found after chemotherapy was 10 mm, due to residual scarring.