Ultrasound and computed tomography in staging of bladder tumours

Eighty-seven patients with proven bladder tumours were retrospectively reviewed with ultrasound (US) and computed tomography (CT), in order to define the stage of the neoplasm. The tumours were divided into three groups with respect to the TNM classification system. Results indicate that US could predict an exact staging of the bladder tumours in 80.6% of the cases in the first group (P1), 68.9% of cases in the second group (P2-P3), and 90.0% of cases in the third group (P4). CT could predict an exact staging in 61.3% of the bladder tumours in the first group, 91.1% in the second group, and 90.0% in the third group. This findings suggests that the capability of US in detecting bladder tumours in stage P1 may avoid the use of CT, while in subsequent stages CT becomes valuable for the evaluation of extravesical invasions and lymph node metastasis. (orig.)