[Ultrasonic tumor diagnosis of the stomach and intestines]

A cockade-like structure, consisting of an echo-free periphery and bright central echos, is often a typical sonographic sign of a gut-wall infiltration in the gastrointestinal tract. On principle, no distinction based on contour or structure can be made sonographically between neoplastic and inflammatory tissue. The recognition of such a cockade-like structure is of importance in patients, in whom no gut-wall infiltration is suspected. Within a period of 12 months cockade-like structures have been detected in the gastrointestinal tract of 20 patients. By extensive diagnostic methods (X-ray examination, endoscopy, laparotomy) a colon carcinoma could be detected in seven, a gastric carcinoma in seven, a pancreatic carcinoma, encroaching circularly upon the duodenum, in one, and a small intestine metastasis of an ovarian carcinoma in one instances. Three typical cockade-like structures in different parts of the intestinal tract are illustrated.