Computed tomography features of small bowel wall thickening and its clinical significance

Small bowel wall thickening is one of the presentations of small bowel diseases.Conventional diagnostic methods,such as enteroscopy, barium-contrast radiography,X-ray,capsule endoscopy,and ultrasonograhy have disadvantages of low positive rate and high misdiagnosis rate.From December 2009 to December 2011,2672 patients with small bowel wall thickening were admitted to the Southwest Hospital.The location,range,degree,attenuation,enhancement feature and associated perienteric abnormalities of thickened bowel wall were studied. Differential diagnosis of tumorous and non-tumorous small bowel wall thickening,malignant and benign tumorous small bowel wall thickening,and different diseases caused nontumorous small bowel wall thickening were carried out in the study.Etiopathogenesis of small bowel wall thickening can be inferred by computed tomography,and multi-slice computed tomography plays an important role in the differential diagnosis.