Endoscopic ultrasound visibility of celiac ganglia

 

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Gleeson and colleagues must be congratulated on their large series evaluating the visibility at EUS of celiac ganglia, recently published in this journal [1]. Their findings confirm that celiac ganglia can be detected by EUS in the majority of patients. However, we would like to correct their statement that ”this is the first study that has evaluated the frequency of visualization of celiac ganglia by EUS.” Our first description of the EUS characteristics of celiac ganglia [2] included a small series of 22 patients who were prospectively evaluated with a linear echo endoscope, and we were able to visualize celiac ganglia in 16 (73 %). The study by Gleeson and colleagues now validates these results in a large number of patients.

In addition, the authors found that celiac ganglia can be seen more frequently with a linear curved-array echo endoscope than with a mechanical radial echo endoscope. It would be interesting to know whether the new electronic radial echo endoscopes improve the ability of radial EUS to detect celiac ganglia.

Competing interests: None

References

• 1 Gleeson F C, Levy M J, Papachristou G I. et al . Frequency of visualization of presumed celiac ganglia by endoscopic ultrasound.  Endoscopy. 2007;  39 620-624
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• 2 Gerke H, Silva R G, Shamoun D. et al . EUS characteristics of celiac ganglia with cytologic and histologic confirmation.  Gastrointest Endosc. 2006;  64 35-39
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H. Gerke,MD 

Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology-Hepatology
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

200 Hawkins Drive, 4548 JCP
Iowa City, IA 52242
USA

Fax: +01-319-353-6399

Email: henning-gerke@uiowa.edu