Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2016; 22(48): 10601-10608
Published online Dec 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i48.10601
Clinical significance of mesenteric panniculitis-like abnormalities on abdominal computerized tomography in patients with malignant neoplasms
Eli D Ehrenpreis, Grigory Roginsky, Richard M Gore
Eli D Ehrenpreis, Grigory Roginsky, University of Chicago, Center for the Study of Complex Diseases, Gastroenterology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Highland Park Hospital, Highland Park, IL 60035, United States
Richard M Gore, Department of Radiology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL 60201, United States
Author contributions: Ehrenpreis ED contributed to conception and design of the study, data acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, making critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript and final approval of the version of the article to be published; Roginsky G contributed to data acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article, making critical revisions and final approval of the version of the article to be published; Gore RM contributed to data acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article and final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Supported by An unrestricted grant from the Keyser Family Fund (partly).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of NorthShore University HealthSystem.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent for this retrospective study was waived by the Institutional Review Board.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Eli D Ehrenpreis, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director, Staff Physician, University of Chicago, Center for the Study of Complex Diseases, Gastroenterology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Highland Park Hospital, 777 Park Avenue West, Highland Park, IL 60035, United States. ehrenpreis@gipharm.net
Telephone: +1-11-8476571900
Received: October 14, 2016
Peer-review started: October 16, 2016
First decision: October 28, 2016
Revised: November 14, 2016
Accepted: November 23, 2016
Article in press: November 28, 2016
Published online: December 28, 2016
Processing time: 73 Days and 16.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The most important question when a patient has new mesenteric panniculitis - like findings on abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan is the likelihood that a malignancy is present. Based on our study, a first diagnosis of cancer occurs in approximately 5% and is unexpected diagnosis in 1.4% of these patients. Lymphomas are the most likely malignancies. A careful clinical evaluation for lymphoma as well as solid tumors is advised. Follow up is also important, as an additional 5% of patients will eventually be diagnosed with a malignancy. In patients with a malignancy, CT findings are likely to remain stable, and positron emission tomography scanning is not advised.