CT staging of bladder carcinoma

CT staging was performed in 49 consecutive patients with known carcinoma of the bladder. The overall accuracy of CT staging in 25 patients with surgically confirmed disease stage was 64%. Most diagnostic errors in this series were related to the determination of perivesical fat involvement by tumor. The overall accuracy of CT in predicting lymph node metastasis was 92%. The sensitivity was 60% and the specificity ws 100%. Because of the current management of bladder carcinoma, the major role of CT is in the evaluation of lymph nodes for metastatic disease. Since CT cannot detect metastasis to nonenlarged lymph nodes, it has only a limited role in the staging of bladder carcinoma at this time.