Cecal angiodysplasia localized by 99mtechnetium blood-pool scintigraphy and specimen venography

Angiodysplasia of the right colon may be difficult to diagnose. The usual methods of choice, selective abdominal angiography and colonoscopy, may be impracticable or fail. When bleeding occurs, 99mtechnetium blood-pool scintigraphy is a simple and reliable method of localizing vessel leakage. We present a case of an 84-year-old woman with severely bleeding angiodysplasia, where the source of bleeding was localized by means of scintigraphy using 99mTc in vivo labeled red blood cells. After right hemicolectomy, the angiodysplastic lesion was confirmed by specimen venography utilizing a barium gelatin mixture.