Value of CT enteroclysis in suspected small-bowel carcinoid tumors

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of CT enteroclysis in depicting small-bowel carcinoid tumors in symptomatic patients with surgical, histologic, or clinical follow-up findings as a reference standard.

At our institution, 44 patients with symptoms of suspected gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors underwent CT enteroclysis. Clinical symptoms were as follows: carcinoid syndrome (n = 3), abdominal pain with diarrhea (n = 24), hypervascular liver metastases (n = 7), subileus condition (n = 1), hypervascular peritoneal lesion (n = 3), abnormal ileal stenosis on optical colonoscopy (n = 3), and follow-up extraintestinal carcinoid lesion (n = 3). Positive CT enteroclysis findings were compared with pathology results after surgical procedures (n = 19). Negative examinations were compared with surgery results (n = 3) or clinical follow-up (n = 22).

CT enteroclysis findings were positive in 19 patients and negative in 25 patients. The sizes of the carcinoid tumors identified were 5-30 mm in axial diameter. These tumors were depicted as focal nodular lesions located in the small-bowel wall or as intraluminal polypoid masses with marked enhancement. Twenty-two patients underwent only clinical follow-up, with a mean clinical follow-up time of 20 months. The overall sensitivity and specificity of CT enteroclysis in identifying patients with small-bowel carcinoid tumors were 100% and 96.2%, respectively. The negative predictive value of CT enteroclysis was 100% and the positive predictive value, 94.7%. Pathologic findings confirmed small-bowel carcinoid tumors in 18 patients.

CT enteroclysis should be considered an excellent tool for the diagnosis of the carcinoid tumor before any surgical procedures.