Malignant Small Bowel Neoplasms : a review of post-contrast multiphasic multidetector computed tomography

Small bowel neoplasms are rare and account for 3-6% of all gastrointestinal neoplasms. For the diagnosis of small bowel neoplasms, differentiating normal bowel tissue from tumor is critical and depends on imaging modality and scanning techniques. The detection and characterization of small bowel neoplasms have recently improved with the advance of computed tomography (CT) technology. Post-contrast multiphasic CT is an aid to detection and recognition of the vascular nature of small bowel neoplasms. Understanding the typical post-contrast multiphasic CT features of small bowel neoplasms is important because of overlapping features and the necessity of evaluating associated complications and metastases to lymph node and other organs. However, accurate classification of pathologies is still challenging in clinical practice. Texture analysis can quantify complex mathematical patterns within the gray-level distribution of the pixels and voxels of digital images, and texture analysis of the post-contrast multidetector CT data of various tumors has been attracting attention in recent years. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive guide to the relevant imaging features for different types of malignant small bowel neoplasms.