Small bowel imaging

Abstract

Radiologic imaging continues to play an integral role in the diagnosis and management of diseases of the small bowel. The mesenteric small intestine remains the only gastrointestinal tract segment for which diagnostic study is not principally dependent on endoscopic viewing. Because radiologists assume primary responsibility in the diagnostic evaluation of the small bowel, it is essential that methods capable of accurately demonstrating small bowel morphology are appropriately applied. Barium contrast studies and enteroclysis, in particular, remain the primary diagnostic methods in the small bowel for most clinical indications. Cross-sectional imaging modalities often provide unique diagnostic information, but their role remains either complementary to the demonstration of surface details by barium contrast studies or directed to specific clinical circumstances that require discrete evaluation of the small bowel wall and adjacent tissues and organs.