title: Left Colonic Bleeding Secondary to Inferior Mesenteric Vein Stenosis.
abstract: Lower gastrointestinal bleeding is most commonly associated with diverticulosis, ischemic colitis, vascular ectasia, and anorectal disease and less commonly associated with colonic malignancy. Infrequently, it is associated with mesenteric varices, a rare etiology that is not well documented in the radiology literature. We present a case of a 50-year-old man diagnosed as having intermittent left colonic bleeding from mesenteric varices due to a critical stenosis at the portal vein-inferior mesenteric vein confluence. This case illustrates a multimodality imaging approach to arrive at the diagnosis with a brief discussion of an atypical endovascular intervention. At the conclusion, we suspect that venous stenting may be suboptimal in treating mesenteric variceal bleeding and recurrence is likely unavoidable.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA.
authors.forename: Thang Q
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Romanelli
mesh_terms: D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D000072226:Computed Tomography Angiography / Q000379:methods; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008641:Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008875:Middle Aged