THE INVESTIGATION OF THE ULTRASONIC ENDOSCOPE (THE 2ND. REPORT)

Abstract

Following the 1st. and the 2nd. type of the ultrasonic endoscope (U. E.), the 3rd. type was developed by the Olympus Co. and the Aloka Co.. We had been investigating the clinical availability of the U. E. (Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3) and the examined cases became 38 cases in total. In this paper, we reported the details of our experience with the 3rd. type of the U. E.. The results were as follows. 1) The endoscopic echograms of the pancreas were more clear than the transcutaneous echograms of the pancreas in details. 2) The U. E. was very useful in visualization of the pancreatic tail which could not been visualized clearly by the transcutaneous echography. 3) The common bile duct could be visualized by scanning at the duodenal bulb and the 2nd. portion of the duodenum. 4) In 6 of 10 cases, we succeeded in inserting the U. E. into the 2nd. portion of the duodenum and we could obtain the echogram of the head and the uncus of the pancreas. 5) The 5 layers of the gastric wall were visualized and the depth of the invasion of the gastric cancer could be diagnosed by the U. E. (Type 3). Then, the submucosal tumor of the stomach was visualized easily by the U. E.. As the conclusion, we confirmed that the 3rd. type of the U. E. would be useful in the further examination of the pancreatobiliary disease and the gastric disease.