http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/7/2/309.full.pdf+html

P M Silverman ; M E Baker ; C Cooper ; F M Kelvin

Pathological processes affectIng the mesentery are only inferentially assessed with barium studies of the small bowel and colon. Cornputed tomography (CT) provides a direct, and noninvaslve method to examine the mesentery and bowel wall (1-3). Although the CT Identification of well defined mesenterlc masses, usually from lymphoma or metastasis, have been well recognized, less information Is available characterizing other mesenteric abnormalities (4-7). This paper demonstrates the variable CT appearance of mesenteric abnormalities caused by inflammatory disease, edema, direct extension from primary malignant neoplasms, and metastatic disease.