CT imaging features of eosinophilic colitis in children.

BACKGROUND: Eosinophilic colitis (EC) is a gastrointestinal disease of undetermined etiology whose clinical features overlap with those of the inflammatory bowel diseases. To the best of our knowledge, the CT imaging features of EC have not been described in children. OBJECTIVE: To report and analyze the clinical, imaging and histological findings in seven children with EC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Children with EC were identified in a pediatric pathology database, and those with CT imaging within 2 months of diagnosis were included, totaling seven children. Clinical, imaging and pathological features were reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: The most common presenting symptoms were abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and rectal bleeding. EC was characterized as a dense and predominantly eosinophilic inflammatory infiltrate in the lamina propria or epithelium without granulomas. CT scans were abnormal in six children (86%), demonstrating colonic wall thickening, predominantly cecal, in five (71%), mild to moderate terminal ileal thickening in two (29%), and pneumatosis in one (14%). Right colonic involvement was greater than terminal ileal involvement. CONCLUSION: CT imaging findings in children with EC include right colonic wall thickening of variable extent downstream and absent or mild involvement of the terminal ileum. EC should be considered in the differential diagnosis in children presenting with abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea.

Angiographic embolization of arterial hemorrhage following endoscopic US-guided cystogastrostomy for pancreatic pseudocyst drainage.

Pseudocyst development is a common complication of chronic pancreatitis. Endoscopic cystogastrostomy is an alternative to percutaneous drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guidance is thought to decrease the procedural risk by identifying and avoiding intervening vasculature. With EUS guidance, extreme care should be exercised to identify large gastric vessels in the path of the puncture. Preoperative imaging should be closely scrutinized for the presence of these vessels. In cases of hemorrhage, balloon tamponading is a rapid way to provide temporary control, allowing transfer of the patient for angiographic embolization. We present a case of arterial hemorrhage due to inadvertent puncture of a hypertrophied right gastric artery following EUS-guided cystogastrostomy, which was successfully treated with temporary balloon occlusion and coil embolization.