MDCT of the Small Bowel

Conclusion

MDCT has become the test of choice for evaluation of known and suspected small-bowel pathology. Dedicated angiographic protocols can be used for investigation of occult GI bleeding or suspected ischemia. Enterography protocols have proven useful for evaluation of small bowel inflammatory disease, especially Crohn's, and for detection and characterization of small-bowel neoplasms. MDCT has largely replaced the small-bowel follow-through as the preferred technique for evaluation of small-bowel obstruction, and is invaluable in numerous other clinical settings in which the bowel is the primary source of pathology or secondarily involved by other processes.

Appl Radiol. 2012;41(8):6-17. © 2012 Anderson Publishing, Ltd.