Abstract:Objective To study the endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) characteristics of malignant pancreatic cystic lesions (PCL) and to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on data of patients who underwent EUS-FNA and diagnosed as having PCL at the First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University from January 2006 to December 2021. Clinical and EUS characteristics between benign and malignant PCL were compared. High-risk characteristics of EUS for malignant PCL were identified by logistic regression analysis. The diagnostic efficacy of EUS-FNA, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for PCL was compared in the surgically confirmed cases. Results A total of 130 PCL cases included 27 (20.77%) mucinous cystic neoplasms (in which 1 case had invasive carcinoma), 19 (14.62%) intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (in which 8 cases had invasive carcinoma or high dysplasia), 15 (11.54%) serous cystic neoplasms, 10 (7.69%) solid pseudopapillary neoplasms, 42 (32.31%) pancreatic cancer, and 17 (13.08%) non-neoplastic PCL. Fifty-one cases were included in the malignant group and 79 cases were in the benign group. In multivariate logistic analysis, EUS showing thickened cystic wall (P=0.018, OR=3.603, 95%CI: 1.274-10.883), solid component (P=0.002, OR=33.041, 95%CI: 5.572-671.106), and peripancreatic invasion (P=0.004, OR=12.810, 95%CI: 2.747-101.812) were independent risk factors for predicting malignant PCL, with an area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.910. Of the 99 surgically confirmed cases, the diagnostic accuracy of CT, MRI and EUS-FNA for malignant PCL was 39.8% (31/80), 49.3% (34/69) and 56.6% (56/99) respectively. Conclusion EUS characteristics may help to identify malignant PCL. The diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA for malignant PCL is superior to those of CT and MRI.