Acute bowel ischemia: CT findings.

Acute bowel ischemia represents one of the most dramatic abdominal emergencies and, despite the fact it is more and more frequently observed in clinical practice, its mortality rate remains very high. In recent years Computed Tomography (CT) has proved to be a valid diagnostic tool in the evaluation of patients with acute abdominal syndrome and in the visualization of early signs of bowel ischemia. This paper reviews the aetiological and pathophysiological aspects as well as a broad spectrum of CT findings of this clinical condition.

Oral contrast-enhanced three-dimensional helical-CT cholangiography: clinical applications.

Our objective was to define the possibility of using oral-contrast-enhanced helical CT for the assessment of patients with cholecystolithiasis and of cholecystectomized symptomatic patients. Twenty-seven patients with cholecystolithiasis and 20 with a painful abdominal symptomatology after cholecystectomy (12 laparoscopic and 8 laparotomic) were recruited for this study. Cholangio-CT was performed 12-14 h after oral administration of 6 g of hyopanoic acid.