Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) was introduced about 30 years ago for the early detection of pancreatic cancer, which was at that time difficult to diagnose with other imaging modalities.

EUS has developed into a main diagnostic modality for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreaticobiliary system. EUS has enabled the accurate diagnosis of early upper and lower gastrointestinal tract either for an optimal curative endoscopic management with endoscopic mucosal and submucosal resection or guiding chemotherapy and surgical resection.

Pancreaticobiliary diseases can accurately be diagnosed with EUS. Choledocholithiasis can be excluded with radial EUS, and pancreatic cancers can be confirmed with EUS-guided fine- needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). EUS-FNA can also be performed on submucosal tumours as well as most mediastinal and abdominal lymph nodes with minimal risk and complications.

Therapeutic spectrum of EUS has encompassed drainage of intra-abdominal and pelvic abscesses, palliation of neuropathic pain for pancreatic diseases, insertion of fiducials for radiotherapy, and injection of antitumor agents for cancer palliation.

New frontier of EUS includes developments of forward-viewing curvilinear echoendoscopes, contrast-enhanced EUS, EUS-FNA needles capable of core biopsies, new devices for the aid of abscess drainages, new compounds for tumor ablation, and needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE). With ongoing research in elastosonography, it may well become an important diagnostic aid in EUS.

In this special issue for Gastroenterology Research and Practice, we particularly invite manuscripts that deal with any aspect of endoscopic ultrasound. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent advances in endoscopic ultrasound
• Current issues in endoscopic ultrasound
• Recent topics of endoscopic ultrasound
• Recent advances in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/grp/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: