TRANSABDOMINAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY IN STAGING OF WILMS TUMOR

Transabdominal Ultrasonography in Wilms Tumor

Abstract

Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of transabdominal ultrasonography (US) in staging
of Wilms tumor, taking transabdominal contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) of abdomen as gold
standard.
Study Design: Cross sectional/validation study.
Place and Duration of Study: Radiology department, Children Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences,
Islamabad, from Apr 2006 to Mar 2007.
Material and Methods: Thirty patients presenting with Wilms tumor underwent transabdominal ultrasound and CT abdomen with contrast for staging. All of them were evaluated for age, gender, presenting complaints, signs and symptoms. As patients were children so consent was taken from their parents. X-ray chest of all of the patients was done to exclude pulmonary metastasis.
Results: For stage-I: Ultrasound correctly staged 10 out of 15 cases of stage-I (66.6%) and over staged 5 out of 15 cases of stage-I (33.3%).For stage-II: Ultrasound correctly staged 2 out of 8 cases of stage-II (25%) and incorrectly staged 6 out of 8 cases of stage-II (75%).For stage-III: Ultrasound correctly staged 4 out of 7 cases of stage-III (57%) and incorrectly staged 3 out of 7 cases of stage-III (43%).
Conclusion: In children, ultrasound abdomen plays a vital role in cases of renal tumors for differential diagnosis, staging, monitoring of therapy and surgical planning. Diagnostic information obtained from CT and ultrasound examinations are complementary in many instances, however, computed tomography (CT) has been shown to be superior to ultrasound (US) in this regard.