The positive and negative diagnosis of gastric cancer by means of serial roentgenography / by ewis Gregory Cole, M.D., Professor of Röntgenology, Cornell University Medical College, New York.

  • Cole, Lewis Gregory, 1874-1954
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The positive and negative diagnosis of gastric cancer by means of serial roentgenography / by ewis Gregory Cole, M.D., Professor of Röntgenology, Cornell University Medical College, New York. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seventy or eighty, which are set up where they may be studied individually and collectively, and super¬ imposed for comparison. If expedient, they are re¬ duced in size and reproduced cinematographically. The examination is necessarily an expensive one, but like surgery it may be placed within the means of all patients. The technic of serial ront- genography has been described in previous com¬ munications, and may be omitted here. The rontgenological diagnosis of new growth of the stomach described herein is based on permanent, constant deformities in the gastric wall, which in¬ terfere with the systole and diastole of the stomach, and the progression pylorusward of the peristalsis. These lesions may be detected at practically any stage of development, and in many cases they may be differentiated with a reasonable degree of cer¬ tainty. In this communication carcinoma, adeno¬ ma, myoma, sarcoma, and indurated ulcer will be regarded as gastric cancer, because the surgical indications for all of them are the same, and one can be differentiated from the other only by a care¬ ful microscopical examination of the specimen after its removal. In many instances the surgeon does not know whether he has cured a case of cancer or prevented one until he receives his pathological re¬ port. Such growths should therefore be considered malignant until proved otherwise. Syphilis of the stomach sometimes resembles cancer so closely that it would be a wise precaution to have the Wassermann test made in every case to eliminate the possibility of confusion. There are, however, rontgenological findings which have enabled me to make the diagnosis of gastric syphilis in cases where I had not suspected such a condition; and the subsequent history and Wassermann reac¬ tion have corroborated my diagnosis. The rontgenographic appearance of carcinoma of the gastric wall depends upon the nature and form of the growth. Where a large rounded mass pro¬ jects into the stomach it prevents the bismuth from filling this portion of the lumen. The area o^ in¬ volvement is constant in size, shape, and position. (Figs. 2 and 4.) If the growth occupies the body or fundus of the stomach, obstruction and gastric retention do not result.