Abstract

Introduction: In the present era, gastrointestinal pathology is one of the most important and expanding branches of medicine. For diagnosis of gastrointestinal tract diseases, various investigative methods such as endoscopy, cytopathology, gastric secretory function and absorption of vitamin B12 etc. are comfortably used. All of the above have some shortcomings and limitations. Histopathology has an important role in the diagnosis of various lesions in the gastrointestinal tract, such as chronic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, malignancies of esophagus, stomach and intestine etc. This study was done for the clinicopathological correlation of gastrointestinal lesions on endoscopic biopsies with positron emission tomography (pet) findings.
Methods: The study was conducted at INHS Asvini, Mumbai between November 2018 to May 2021 and included 50 cases. Endoscopic biopsies were grossed for histopathological examination after overnight formalin fixation and sections were submitted for H and E and were examined. Special stains like PAS, Mucin stains and Giemsa will be done as and when required and correlated with FDG PET findings.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, accuracy and positive likelihood ratio of histopathological findings was 97.7%, 85.7%, 97.7%, 85.7%, 96% and 6.84 respectively whereas the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, accuracy and positive likelihood ratio of Endoscopic findings was 88.4%,57.1%,92.7%,44.4%,84% and 2.06 respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, accuracy and positive likelihood ratio of FDG-PET findings was 90.7%, 57.1%, 92.8%, 50%, 86% and 2.12 respectively.
Conclusion: It is concluded that although FDG-PET has a high accuracy in detecting lesions, Histopathology is the gold standard in detecting malignant lesions.

Key words: Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal lesions, PET