As part of the outreach program of the Welfare Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives in Kumamoto Prefecture, ultrasonographic examinations for abdominal diseases were carried out in rural communities from the beginning of April 1986 to the end of March 1994. A total of 119, 172 people went through the abdomen checkup during the period. In this study, we reviewed the results of the examinations with respect to the followings.
The percentage of those examinees who were found to have some impairment increased from a range of 40% to upwards 50% during the period under review. Those who were told to receive followup examinations accounted for as high as 10% of the total initially, but the percentage dropped to 2. 9%. The percentage of those actually underwent followup examinations once fell to a range of 70%, but later rose to 85%. The rate of detection of malignancies went up steadily from 0. 08 to 0. 12% year by year.
To decrease the percentage of the patients having to receive followup examinations and to increase the malignancy detection ratio, it was deemed necessary to improve echographers' skills, and establish a nost-examination care/guidance system.

From 1986 to 1991, 49 malignancies were found in sonographic examination of 53, 788 subjects carried out by the Kumamoto Prefectual Welfare Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives. The cases were composed of 12 hepatocellular carcinomas, 11 metastatic liver tumors, 11 renal cell carcinomas, 6 gall bladder carcinomas, 3 gastric carcinomas and 6 ether malignancies including metastatic pancreas tumors and ovarian tumors. A follow-up survey was made in 37 cases. All the case of renal cell carcinoma were found in an early stage and showed the best prognosis; the 2-year survival rate was 100%(n=7). In hepatocellular carcinomas 1-year and 2-year survival rates were 85% and 33%, respectively. Eight of 11 metastatic liver tumors were f rom gastrointestinal malignancies, and prognosis was poor; 1-and 2-year survival rates were 44% and 37%, respectively. Gastric carcinomas were found with lymphadenopathy or the thickening of the gastric wall, so prognosis was quite poor. Abdominal sonography has proved to be a very convenient and safe procedure to find out malignancies in the early stage. In detected (asymptomatic) cases of renal cell carcinoma, prognosis was excellent.