ROENTGEN DIAGNOSIS OF GASTRIC SYPHILIS

Abstract

In June, 1913, I made my first roentgenologic diagnosis of gastric syphilis. The diagnosis was made prior to the examination of the blood, which later was reported as giving a four plus Wassermann reaction. The diagnosis was confirmed also by operation, at which time a gastro-enterostomy was performed by Dr. W. A. Downes, who used the proximal portion of a stomach showing the dumb-bell type of hour-glass deformity. The patient, at that time a girl, aged 14, was referred to me for roentgen examination from the outpatient department of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, with the clinical diagnosis of esophageal stricture. The case was evidently one of congenital syphilis (fig. 1 A ). I have reexamined this patient several times. The last examination, made June 12, 1930, seventeen years after gastro-enterostomy, shows that the stomach empties readily through the new opening. Some dilatation of the esophagus still remains as noted at