Sonographic Evaluation of Colonic Carcinoma in Comparison to Colonoscopy

Colon cancer is one of the main causes of cancer death. Diagnosis requires the examination of the entire large bowel by means of radiological or endoscopic techniques. Though there is not a remarkable advancement in gastrointestinal (GI) tract evaluations, the modern radiological imaging methods emphasize the importance of ultrasonography (US) evaluations and stand US out as the scanning method in malignancies of the GI tract. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of cancers of the colon & it's accuracy in comparison to colonoscopy. This cross sectional analytical study included a total of 62 patients, including 38(61.29%) male and 24(38.71%) female patients who came at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital & Popular Diagnostic Center, Mymensingh from January 2013 to November 2015 & whose ultrasonography and endoscopic examinations were planned with suspicion of colon cancer. Considering the colonoscopic biopsy as a gold standard, the sensibility, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the ultrasonography were evaluated manually. All patients underwent ultrasonography and colonoscopy and results were compared with histopathologic diagnosis. Malignancy was histopathologically identified in 37(59.68%) patients. The sensitivity of ultrasound to identify colon cancer was 86.48%, its specificity was 84%, positive predictive value and negative predictive value was 88.89% & 80.77% respectively. The sensitivity of endoscopic intervention was 100%, its specificity was 96% and positive predictive value was 93.7%. Likewise, a series of analytical and clinical parameters were evaluated, in an attempt to establish associated factors of a colon cancer by means of the statistical package SPSS 13.0 for Windows. Therefore, we believe that abdominal ultrasonography which is non-invasive, easily accessible, cost-efficient method may detect a colonic mass or wall thickening consistent with a colonic carcinoma with a high degree of accuracy.