Endoscopic Diagnosis of Early Malignant Lymphoma of the Stomach

Abstract

Abstract: The findings and results obtained by endoscopies and direct vision biopsies carried out in 13 patients with early primary gastric lymphoma, were compared with those of 8 patients with RLH, 28 with depressed type of early gastric carcinoma, and 10 patients with benign gastric ulcers, to deal with problems inherent to endoscopic diagnosis of early primary gastric lymphomaThe first endoscopy attained a correct diagnosis in only 1 patient (7.7%) but in 7 patients (53.8%) with the final endoscopy. Endoscopic features of early gastric lymphoma characteristically yielded a cobblestone appearance and reticulated erosion when they were compared with that of RLH, early carcinoma and benign ulcer. Furthermore, early gastric lymphoma presented ill demarcated margins associated with discoloration of the mucosa more frequently comparing with that of early gastric carcinoma. Also, hemorrhage, lustrous nodules, regulalr and white‐coated ulcer were the findings more frequently seen in early gastric lymphoma but redness was less frequent in early gastric carcinoma. Dye endoscopies provided a more detailed appearance of the lesion and margins than conventional endoscopies. In addition, dye endoscopies made visible the lesions that were not visible by conventional endoscopies, in areas repelling dye solution.In this paper, the importance to pay an attention to the endoscopic findings described above and an application of dye endoscopy was emphasized for detection of an early gastric lymphoma.