SPECT/CT helps in localization and guiding management of small bowel gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
A 59-year-old female patient was hospitalized with anemia from recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding. Planar (99m)Tc-tagged red blood cell bleeding scan suggested an active site of low-rate hemorrhage in the left upper quadrant, but after 60 minutes it could not conclusively define the bleeding as originating in small versus large bowel. SPECT/CT unequivocally localized the hemorrhage to the small bowel and deemed it reachable by extended version ("push"’) endoscope. Subsequent push enteroscopy confirmed the bleeding in proximal jejunum and allowed effective treatment with electrocautery.
Brian S
BS
Bentley
Mark
M
Tulchinsky
D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007421:Intestine, Small; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed