The value of angiography in diagnosis of Meckel's diverticulum: case report

Meckel's diverticulum is the most common anomaly of the gastrointestinal tract and usually produces no symptoms, although the classic symptom is painless rectal bleeding in a child. Because most symptomatic diverticula in children contain ectopic gastric tissue, radionuclide imaging using a technetium 99m pertechnetate scan is considered to be the method of choice. However, a bleeding Meckel's diverticulum may not be detected by pertechnetate imaging despite the presence of ectopic gastric mucosa. When the scan is negative, visceral angiography is an alternative procedure for detecting Meckel's diverticulum. We encountered a case of pathology-proven Meckel's diverticulum whose angiography result was diagnostic, while upper gastrointestinal panendoscopy, colonofibroscopy, barium enema studies, and repeated radionuclide scans were all negative. We report on this case to emphasize the potential role for angiographic detection of Meckel's diverticulum.