MedWire News: An imaging technique that uses computed tomography and 'virtual' gastroscopy to build 3D pictures of the inside of the stomach may help distinguish patients with cancerous gastric ulcers from those with non-cancerous ulcers, researchers have found.

Conventional gastroscopy, in which doctors use an optical instrument to look inside the stomach, is one of the standard methods for diagnosing patients with gastric ulcers.

"However the procedure is invasive and occasionally may miss early stage [cancerous] disease," explain Dr Chiao-Yun Chen, from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues.

The researchers therefore investigated whether an imaging technique that uses multidetector computed tomography and virtual gastroscopy to form 'multiplane' images of the stomach can differentiate cancerous ulcers from non-cancerous lesions.

"For virtual gastroscopy, we need to inflate the stomach to perform a computed tomography scan then send all of the raw data to the workstation for post-processing. We can visualise the mucosal surface of the stomach... and detect each lesion's depth," said Dr Chen.

To test the effectiveness of the technique, the team studied 26 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer and 26 diagnosed with benign gastric ulcers.

They found that the technique was sensitive and 100% specific for distinguishing cancer from non-cancerous ulcers.

The researchers conclude in the American Journal of Roentgenology: "Multidetector computed tomography combined with virtual gastroscopy and multiplanar reconstruction enhances the morphologic details of gastric ulcers and is a useful way to differentiate malignant (T1 and T2) and benign gastric ulcers."

Dr Chen added: "High specificity may help avoid delay in the treatment of patients with gastric cancer and thus may improve their survival rate."