Comparison of CT virtual endoscopy with electronic colonoscopy in 30 colonic c arcinoma patients

Objective To evaluate the clinical application of CT virtual endoscopy (CTVE) in the diagn osis and treatment of colonic carcinoma.Methods We collected 30 patients pathologically proven to have colonic carcinomas as exa mined by CTVE and electronic colonoscopy (EC), correlating the CTVE and EC image s respectively with surgical pathology in three aspects: tumor morphological fea tures, degree of circumferential bowel wall involvement and longitudinal extent of tumor.Results CTVE imaging of colonic carcinomas showed morphological features: poly poid pattern (11 patients), ulcerative pattern (11), and infiltrative pattern (8 ); degree of circumferential bowel wall involvement: less than 1/2 (4 patients), from 1/2 to 3/4 (6), and more than 3/4 (20); and their longitudinal extent: 1.0-3.0 cm (7 patients), 31-5.0 cm (10), and 5.1-11.0 cm (13).Corr elation of CTVE and EC with surgical pathology was found.Comparison of CTVE wi th surgical pathology showed tumor morphological features: concordant (26 patien ts), and disconcordant (4); degree of circumferential bowel wall involvement: co ncordant (25), disconcordant (5); and longitudinal extent of the tumor: concorda nt (23), disconcordant (7).Comparison of EC with surgical pathology showed tum or morphological features: concordant (22 patients), disconcordant (8); degree o f circumferential bowel wall involvement: concordant (28), disconcordant (2); an d longitudinal extent of the tumor: concordant (14), disconcordant (3), and unde fined by EC (13).Conclusions The images obtained by CTVE in colonic carcinoma are similar to those obtained b y EC.CTVE is an excellent alternative to EC for patients who can not tolerate EC and for cases with incomplete EC.