Imaging features of toxic megacolon

Description 

A 27-year-old woman presents with vomiting and abdominal pain for 2 days. She had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) 2 weeks prior and was started on oral sulfasalazine and prednisolone. Currently, she is afebrile and not tachycardic. On examination, the abdomen was distended and tender centrally. Serial abdominal radiographs showed persistently dilated transverse colon with loss of haustra (figure 1). CT abdomen revealed diffuse bowel thickening involving the ascending colon, caecum and terminal ileum with multiple pseudopolyps at the ascending colon (figure 2). The transverse colon is dilated up to 6.8 cm (figure 3). There are also multiple enlarged right-sided mesenteric nodes. A diagnosis of toxic megacolon (TM) was made. She deteriorated during admission due to acute pulmonary embolism. Blood investigations showed marked leucocytosis (32x10⁹/L) and raised C-reactive proteins (98.7 mg/L). Subtotal colectomy involving the caecum until splenic flexure was performed followed by ileostomy and mucous...

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