Abdominal Ultrasound – The Leading Method in Duodenal Gist Diagnostics

Abstract

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract and are generally asymptomatic. A 39-year-old female patient was hospitalized in 2012 at Clinical Department of Internal Medicine, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center, for a focal hypodense irregular circular lesion located in segment III of the left hepatic lobe, accidentally found by ultrasonography and verified by computed tomography. Th e findings were also verified with nuclear magnetic resonance and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. A biopsy sample of the lesion was analyzed by histologic and immunohistochemical methods and identified as GIST. The patient underwent surgical operation (tumor excision with terminoterminal anastomosis created between the second segment of duodenum and jejunum and resection of liver segment III). The histopathologic findings matched GIST with a high probability of relapse according to the localization, size, mitotic activity and Ki-67 values. Th erefore, therapy with imatinib at a dose of 400 mg/day was administered. Three years after the operation, the patient is still in remission.

Keywords

• Gastrointestinal stromal tumors – diagnostic imaging
• Ultrasonography
• Elasticity imaging techniques
• Imatinib mesylate
• Case reports