Urinary bladder tumors studied by cystosonography. Part II: Staging.

Correlation between the sonographic staging and the clinical staging as determined by excretory urography, CT, cystoscopy, bimanual examination under anesthesia, and biopsy was possible in 14 of 17 cases of bladder tumor. Ultrasound failed to stage three cases either because the tumor was not seen by sonography (one case) or because of technically suboptimal images (two cases). The cystoscopically obtained biopsy specimens were adequate to make pathologic staging possible in 12 of 14 cases. There was agreement between the sonographic and clinical staging in all 14 cases and with the pathologic staging in all 12 adequately staged cases. The shortcomings of pathologic staging using the cystoscopic biopsy and the criteria of sonographic staging are discussed. Although sonography was demonstrated to be more accurate than conventional methods, further experience is necessary before conclusions can be drawn.