Progress seen for diagnoses: Increased Accuracy Is Predicted by Physician

              The president of the American Gastroscppic Society predicted here Wednesday that doctors will soon be able to diagnose stomach cancer with, 100 per cent accuracy.
"We're pretty close now," said Dr. C. Wilmer Wirts of Philadelphia.
Dr. Wirts said the latest technique—examination of exfoliated cells permits 35 per cent accuracy in such diagnosis.
"As you know, exfoliated cells are cells whidh shed themselves from the lining of the stomach,'* explained th| physician, who presided at a one-day meeting of the American Gastr6.scopieY— Society.
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Dr. Wirts said in using this newest technique, a tube is placed in thef stomach and the cells are walhed out so they can be examined under the microscope.
"Our most important tool, of course, is still the gastroscope^" added -■ the gastroenterologist. '-The gastrosdope is an instrument which Resembles a periscope and it can be used as a means of looking into the stomach."
Dr. Wirts said the newest type of gastroscope photographs and take moving pictures of the in-
also is doing? a very good job in its ability to take biopsies.
"In a gastroscopic biopsy, a small piece of tissue is removed from the inside of the stoni-iach," said Dr. Wirts. "This saves the patient from haying to ' undergo exploratory surgery."
Dr. Wirts said although the | X-ray is used most frequently in cancer detection, it is only 80 per cent accurate when used alone.
"A fold in the stomach may hide the career," he explained. "That's why you have to combine all metlx)ds. By combining X-ray, washing out of the cells, biopsy and a peering into the stomach with the gastroscope, we should get so we won't miss a single case."
The visiting physician Msdd experiments stre now being carried on with a flexible fiberglas gastroscope,  which,  when per-
fected, will permit the gastro? enterologist io examine not only^ the stomach but the lining membrane of the entire intestinal tract.
"This, of course, is still in 1M laboratory s t a g e," he saidi-"But it should prove highly hm jiortant. Some of these days I feel sure we will discover that the small intestine is far more important as being $ site oft a disease, particularly a disease of nutrition."
Dr. Wirts said gastroscopic examination  has  come  a  long
sicians had to illuminate their gastroscopes with reflected il* lamination from an oil lamp or a tallow candle.
The national president said reduction in gastro-intestinai disease can be accomplished bv living a moderate life and avoiding excessive tension.
He said a doctor can nelp by prescribing appropriate seda^ tion and tranquilizers and by; advising his patient
Dr. Wirts said the patient should also be made to see the; importance of a proper diet.
"He should eat well-balanced: meals with «uts of fruit and vegetables," he asserted. "But h^ shouldn't overeat. Most im-r portant he should cut out drink- > ing coffee arid smoking cigarettes on an empty stomach. This interferes with the normal function of the lining of the stomach yncl the intestines "
Dr. Donovan C. Browne, past president of the American Gas-troscopic Society, served as chairman or" the one-day meet­ing of the society, tield Wed­nesday at the Louisiana State university medical school.
The meeting was a forerun­ner of the 61st annual meeting of the American Gastroentero-logical Association, which opens a two-d^y eonveriion Friday at theRoosevelt hotel.