The sonographic appearances of gastric lymphoma

The sonographic images obtained from 17 patients with gastric lymphoma were reviewed. In 15/17 cases the tumor presented as an abdominal mass, either with a "target-like" pattern or with a solid, homogeneous structure; in the remaining two cases only thickening of portions of the gastric wall was seen. Two features that may help to differentiate lymphoma from other gastric diseases were observed in patients of this series. In eight cases thickened mucosal folds could be identified within the gastric mass, outlined by strong luminal echoes arranged like the spokes of a wheel. A hypoechoic appearance of hte infiltrated gastric wall was seen in 13/17 cases; it was less echogenic than the adjacent liver parenchyma and, often, it was almost echo-free. Sonography is often used as the first imaging method in cases of patients with abdominal complaints and clinically unsuspected tumors of the stomach may be visualized first by it. In such cases, identification of these features within a gastric mass may allow sonography to suggest the lymphomatous nature of the disease.