Small Bowel Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors: The Value of CT Enterography in Assessing Pathological Aggressiveness

This study aimed to characterize the computed tomography (CT) enterography features of the small bowel gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and to determine the association with pathological aggressiveness.

Computed tomography enterography images of 30 patients with the histologically confirmed small bowel GIST were retrospectively enrolled. Tumor size, location, border, growth pattern, enhancement pattern, necrosis, calcification, ulceration, internal air, nodal metastasis, liver metastasis, peritoneal metastasis, and draining vein were evaluated. Relationships between imaging features and pathological aggressiveness were analyzed using χ 2 test or Fisher exact test. Correlations among CT features were analyzed using Spearman correlation analysis.

There were significant differences in tumor size between different risk levels ( F = 8.388, P < 0.001). There were statistically significant differences in the 5 imaging manifestations of necrosis, ulcer, tumor boundary, drainage vein, and intratumoral gas ( P < 0.05). There was a significant negative correlation between tumor size and enhancement type as well as clear tumor boundary. There was a significant positive correlation between tumor size and necrosis, ulcer, drainage vein, intratumoral gas, liver metastasis, and peritoneal metastasis.

Some CT enterography imaging features might be useful in the determination of the pathological aggressiveness in the patients with small bowel GIST.