Diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound T-staging of the urinary bladder cancer in comparison with histology in elderly patients.

Urinary bladder cancer (UBC) is dominantly the cancer of the elderly occurring primarily in the 6h, 7!h and 81h decade of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound T-staging (UTS) of UBC in dhe group of elderly patients. In 152 elderly patients referred to transabdominal ultrasound examination in two different facilities (76 each) due to various symptoms (primarily painless gross or microscopic haematuria) UBC was diagnosed. Initial UTS at the moment of detection was performed and compared with final histological T-staging (HTS). A high level of conformity between UTS and HTS was detected. In a total of 152 patients with UBC there were 115 (75.66%) patients with complete match between the UTS and HTS, 24 (15.79%) patients with minimal variation within one stage, and 13 (8.55%) patients with one stage difference between the UTS and HTS. The best result was established for the stage T1, where the accuracy was 94.5%. In other stages the accuracy was between 84.9% and 91.8%. The Youden's index for all the stages was over 0.6. UTS has a high diagnostic accuracy, especially for stages T1 and T2. It is extremely useful tool in differentiating the superficial UBC from the muscle-invasive one, being of significant importance in planning the further treatment of elderly patients and having important role in choosing appropriate surgical approach.