Table 3.
Studies on the use of Endoscopic Ultrasound Elastography (EUS-E) to detect Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs).
| Author | Study | N. GISTs | Lesion Size mm | Echo Pattern | SR/Elastic Scores | Sensitivity | Specificity | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tsuji Y et al., 2016 [62] | Prospective | 9 (SELs, n = 25) | <20 (36%)20–50 (56%) >50 (8%) |
Homogeneous hypoechoic: 2/9 (22.2%); Heterogeneous: 7/9 (77.8%) | Giovannini elastic score 4: 6/9 pts (66.7%); score 5: 3/9 pts (33.3%) | NA | Low | EUS-E may be useful for differentiating GISTs from other SELs; GISTs are characterized as “hard” tissues in comparison to other SELs |
| Ignee A et al., 2017 [50] | Prospective | 57 (SELs, n = 62) | 62.6 ± 42.1 (16–200) | Blue pattern: 61/62 (98%; Homogenous: 48/61 (79%); Heterogeneous: 13/61 (21%) | No quantification techniques were employed (SR or histogram analysis) | Low | Low | EUS-E is ineffective for distinguishing GISTs from GI leiomyoma because both types of GI mesenchymal tumors are relatively hard lesions |
| Antonini F et al., 2018 [73] | Retrospective | 30 patients | NA | NA | NA | 81.8% | 85.7% | EUS-E, with a cut-off of 11.18, showed promise in distinguishing GISTs from leiomyomas |
| Kim SH et al., 2020 [63] | Prospective | 7 (SELs, n = 31) | 23 ± 7 | Homogeneous hypoechoic: 7/7 (100%) | SR: 51.1 (29.0–67.0) | 100% | 94.1% | EUS-E could be a useful diagnostic tool for evaluating gastric SELs, especially in differentiating GISTs from leiomyomas |
| Guo J et al., 2021 [66] | Retrospective | 47 | NA | NA | 4 channels’ mean hue values of RGB, R, G, and B: 20.25 ± 0.72, −0.79 ± 0.78, 20.79 ± 1.68, and 39.72 ±1.30 | 50% | 78.7% | There was insufficient evidence to support the use of quantitative EUS-E for the differential diagnosis of GIST and leiomyomas |
Abbreviations: GISTs: Gastrointestinal stromal tumors; SR: Strain ratio; EUS-E: Endoscopic ultrasound elastography; SELs: Subepithelial lesions; GI: gastrointestinal.