title: Detection of gastric MALT lymphoma spreading to the small bowel by enteroscopy.
abstract: Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is thought to be a multifocal disease with sometimes synchronous involvement of various mucosal structures. In this study we aimed to evaluate the potential involvement of the small bowel in patients suffering from gastric MALT lymphoma by analyzing the results of enteroscopy, a technique that allows easy and safe access to the small bowel with the potential for histological assessment of biopsy samples. We have retrospectively evaluated 347 enteroscopies and found nine patients with gastric MALT lymphoma who had undergone push enteroscopy with serial biopsies during staging. All patients tolerated enteroscopy without side effects, and no local complications occurred. In eight cases no evidence of duodenal or jejunal involvement was found macroscopically or by histological assessment of biopsies, while in one patient enteroscopy revealed jejunal MALT lymphoma infiltration with macroscopic accentuation of mucosal parts and consecutive histopathological verification more distal than 50 cm. This single-center retrospective analysis shows that enteroscopy can provide additional diagnostic information in patients with gastric MALT lymphoma, although the number of patients was small and only one out of nine patients showed hitherto undetected MALT lymphoma deposits. Further studies may quantify the additional diagnostic yield provided by this easy and safe endoscopic method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. werner.dolak@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dolak
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raderer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maresch
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Muellauer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puespoek
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chott
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haefner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007580:Jejunal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D018442:Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*