Objectives: The diagnostic value of different noninvasive diagnostic modalities and the endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) reliability of duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are ambiguous in the present studies.
Methods: Patients with a histopathological diagnosis of the primary duodenal GISTs between the years 2008 and 2018 were analyzed. Data on the treatment and clinicopathological features were recorded. Furthermore, the computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), EUS, and EUS-FNA results were collected and compared.
Results: A total of 142 patients were enrolled into the study. In all patients, the most common symptom was gastrointestinal bleeding (44.4%), followed by abdominal pain and bloating (27.5%). Duodenal GISTs were mostly located in the second duodenal portion (52.1%), followed by the first portion (19.0%). EUS had significantly higher sensitivity and positive predictive values than CT or MRI (P = 0.047 and P = 0.005, respectively). The EUS-FNA sensitivity of duodenal GISTs was also significantly higher than the conventional endoscopic biopsy (73.3% vs 33.3%, P = 0.006). A total of 131 patients underwent surgery, including limited resection or pancreaticoduodenectomy. The tumor size and postoperative complication rates were higher in patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy (P = 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively).
Discussion: The diagnostic value of EUS is significantly higher than that of CT and MRI for duodenal GISTs. The EUS-FNA can provide a histological diagnosis of duodenal GISTs in most cases.