The final diagnosis is based on examination of the Pap smears and the cell blocks using standard cytologic criteria (36). Special cytology stains are used as indicated to diagnose neuroendocrine tumors. The sensitivity of EUS-FNA for diagnosing pancreatic cancer has ranged from

80-95% in various published studies (37)-(39). The performance characteristics of EUS-FNA for diagnosing PaCa seem to be influenced by presence of obstructive jaundice at initial clinical presentation and presence of underlying chronic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical pancreatitis. In patients without obstructive jaundice, the diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA is very high (98.3%) and is not significantly influenced by presence of underlying chronic pancreatitis. However, in patients presenting with obstructive

jaundice, the sensitivity(92.0%) and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical accuracy(92.5%) of EUS-FNA for diagnosing malignancy is significantly lower especially so in patients with chronic pancreatitis (40). Absence of an identifiable mass lesion on EUS rules out PaCa with almost 100% certainty in the hands of experienced endosonographers (41). The accuracy of EUS-FNA for PaCa diagnosis can be further improved with use of adjunctive immunostaining in slides obtained by smearing EUS-FNA specimens (42). EUS is helpful in further evaluation of patients with non-specific and subtle findings suggestive of PaCa on CT and MRI imaging. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical We had earlier reported in non-jaundiced patients with “enlarged head of pancreas” or “dilated PD with or without a dilated CBD” on CT/MRI, a pancreatic malignancy was present Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in 9.0% of patients and EUS-FNA diagnosed cancer in these patients with 99.1% accuracy (43). EUS probably has a role in preoperative staging of PaCa for determining resectability. Portal vein and splenic vein invasion are visualized better with EUS. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical However, tumor involvement of SMA and SMV is not reliably determined by EUS. In published studies , EUS has a T-stage accuracy of 78-94% and N-stage accuracy of 64-82% (44)-(49). However, the presence of biliary stent at the time of EUS examination reduced the T-stage accuracy to 72% (50). EUS also plays a role in identification and biopsy of metastatic peripancreatic, celiac and mediastinal

lymph nodes for tumor involvement. Ahmed et al., questioned the role of EUS for T-staging and found its accuracy between 49% and 69% in two different studies (51),(52). With recent advances in CT and MRI technology and AV-951 the ability to perform image reconstruction, very detailed evaluation of vascular infiltration by tumors is nowpossible. EUS imaging probably has an adjunctive role in T-staging of pancreatic tumors. However, due to its ability to reliably identify lymph nodal metastasis in celiac and mediastinal lymph nodes, EUS- FNA can prove to be beneficial in pre-operative assessment of resectability (53),(54). The main limitation of EUS is its selleck catalog operator dependence and limited availability of expert endosonographers for accurate reporting. EUS carries a 0.