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Case Reports
. 2011 Jan 25:2011:bcr1120103492.
doi: 10.1136/bcr.11.2010.3492.

A wolf in sheep's clothing

Affiliations
Case Reports

A wolf in sheep's clothing

C M Bakker et al. BMJ Case Rep. .

Abstract

Carcinoid tumours are often difficult to diagnose because of non-specific symptoms, mimicking those of irritable bowel disease of Crohn's disease. The authors describe a 57-year-old patient with clinical and radiological features, suggestive of Crohn's disease, in whom the diagnosis was proved to be a carcinoid tumour involving the terminal ileum. This case report illustrates that ileal carcinoid should be considered in the differential diagnosis of Crohn's disease, particularly in older patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Small bowel conventional barium study showing an irregularly narrowed long segment of the ileum (arrows).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Axial reconstructed multidetector CT images of the abdomen showing a solid mass in the mesenterium (thick arrow). Fine tissue strands (desmoplastic reaction) in the periphery of the mass infiltrate the surrounding mesentery and the small bowel (thin arrows).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Coronal CT images of the same mass shown in figure 2.

References

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