These results indicate that CP with focal narrowing of the MPD is part of the same clinical spectrum as CP with diffuse narrowing of the MPD, and whether the distribution is diffuse or focal seems to be related to the stage or the extent of the disease. It is therefore important to recognize the possible existence of this focal variant to avoid unnecessary surgery.

Endoscopic ultrasonography has become an important diagnostic procedure complementary to endoscopy and histopathological study in the preoperative evaluation of gastric carcinoma. Despite allowing visualization of tumoral infiltration with quite high accuracy, certain factors have limited the accuracy of this modality or even led to misinterpretation. We designed a prospective study to evaluate the accuracy of gastric carcinoma diagnosis with special reference to factors resulting in misdiagnosis. During a 22 month period, 86 patients with early and advanced gastric carcinoma underwent surgical or endoscopic resection on the basis of endosonographic findings. In all patients, endosonographic findings, location and macroscopic type of the tumor and histopathological characteristics including depth of invasion, malignant cell type and/or differentiation, and the presence/absence of ulceration in the tumor focus were recorded. The endosonographic and histopathological results were compared at the end of the study. Overall accuracy was 85% using the TNM staging system. There were no significant differences in accuracy in the location of the tumor, histological grading or macroscopic type of tumor, although the accuracy rate was lower for tumors located in the antrum. Ulceration in the tumor focus was a major factor leading to misinterpretation of the findings of early gastric cancer (p<0.02). The diagnosis of microinvasion is an issue which remains to be resolved.

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The serum levels of pancreatitis-associated protein (PAP) were measured in 196 patients with digestive diseases and 15 healthy subjects by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The serum PAP levels were significantly elevated in the patients with gastric, colorectal, biliary tract, hepatocellular, or pancreatic cancers compared with the healthy subjects. After curative resection of the tumor, serum PAP levels were significantly decreased. The serum PAP levels were not related to clinicopathological factors except for the tumor size of pancreatic cancer. There were some cases of PAP-positive and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 -negative gastric and colorectal cancers. The serum PAP levels were also significantly elevated in the patients with acute pancreatitis compared with those in not only the healthy subjects but also the patients with chronic pancreatitis. The peak PAP levels were significantly correlated with the severity of acute pancreatitis and reflected the clinical healing of the disease. The peak of serum PAP was significantly delayed compared with those of other pancreatic enzymes. These results suggest that the increase of serum PAP levels in patients with gastrointestinal cancers reflects an ectopic expression of PAP in cancer cells and that increased serum levels of PAP in acute pancreatitis are correlated with the disease severity and are prolonged than those of other pancreatic markers.

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