Radiographic study of acute gastric anisakiasis

The radiographic findings from 226 patients with acute gastric anisakiasis are reviewed. Suggestive but indeterminate findings such as coarse and broad gastric folds caused by mucosal edema were demonstrated in 224 patients (98%). In 179 patients (88%) mucosal edema was so extensive that it occupied more than half of the entire gastric wall. The most diagnostic radiographic finding, present in 139 patients, was the appearance of a threadlike filling defect about 3 cm in length, showing an anisakis larva itself. Careful demonstration of these radiographic findings is useful for the diagnosis of acute gastric anisakiasis.