Mesenteric changes in an ultrasound examination can facilitate the diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors of the small intestine
Article Category: Original paper
Published Online: Sep 13, 2016
Page range: 274 - 282
Received: Dec 01, 2014
Accepted: Jun 04, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15557/jou.2015.0024
Keywords
© 2015 Andrzej Smereczyński et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Neuroendocrine tumors make up an interesting pathology of a variable clinical picture, prognosis, localization, endocrine activity and degree of malignancy.
Aim
The aim of this paper is to assess whether ultrasonography can be helpful in diagnosing neuroendocrine tumors in the small intestine by analyzing changes in the mesentery.
Material and methods
From 1996 to 2013, we encountered 17 patients (9 women and 8 men at the mean age of 57) with a neuroendocrine tumor in the small intestine. The diagnosis was confirmed in all patients by pathomorphologicalexaminations. All retrospectively analyzed patients (
Results
Primary neuroendocrine tumors were visualized ultrasonography in 13 of 17 patients (76.5%). In the remaining 4 patients, tumors in the small bowel were diagnosed in CT enteroclysis (
Conclusions
In an abdominal US examination, 2/3 of patients with neuroendocrine tumors in the small bowel manifest secondary lesions in the mesentery which are easier to visualize than the primary focus. 30% of them are manifested as hypoechoic masses. The detection of such lesions should prompt the search for the primary focus in the small intestine.