MDCT imaging of the stomach: advances and applications

Br J Radiol. 2017 Jan;90(1069):20160412. doi: 10.1259/bjr.20160412. Epub 2016 Dec 8.

Abstract

The stomach may be involved by a myriad of pathologies ranging from benign aetiologies like inflammation to malignant aetiologies like carcinoma or lymphoma. Multidetector CT (MDCT) of the stomach is the first-line imaging for patients with suspected gastric pathologies. Conventionally, CT imaging had the advantage of simultaneous detection of the mural and extramural disease extent, but advances in MDCT have allowed mucosal assessment by virtual endoscopy (VE). Also, better three-dimensional (3D) post-processing techniques have enabled more robust and accurate pre-operative planning in patients undergoing gastrectomy and even predict the response to surgery for patients undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for weight loss. The ability of CT to obtain stomach volume (for bariatric surgery patients) and 3D VE images depends on various patient and protocol factors that are important for a radiologist to understand. We review the appropriate CT imaging protocol in the patients with suspected gastric pathologies and highlight the imaging pearls of various gastric pathologies on CT and VE.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Female
  • Gastritis / diagnosis
  • Gastritis / pathology
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Lipoma / diagnosis
  • Lipoma / pathology
  • Lymphoma / diagnosis
  • Lymphoma / pathology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multidetector Computed Tomography / methods*
  • Neoplasm Invasiveness / pathology
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Stomach / pathology*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Stomach Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / surgery
  • User-Computer Interface*