The role of radiology in Campylobacter enterocolitis

A series of 18 patients with diarrhoea and positive stool cultures for Campylobacter jejuni is presented. The most important radiological features were thickening of ileal mucosal folds, of interhaustral indentations and of the ileocaecal valve, lymphoid hyperplasia and microulcerations. Radiology, as well as endoscopy, are both nonspecific in Campylobacter jejuni enterocolitis. The importance of radiology is to exclude more typical features of other causes of inflammatory bowel diseases. Moreover, before the result of the stool culture is available, the radiological features should suggest the suspicion of an acute infectious enterocolitis by Campylobacter jejuni as possible diagnosis.