European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background:  This study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic value of CT enterography using mannitol as a negative contrast agent for demonstrating and diagnosing bowel diseases and correlating it with the histopathological diagnosis. Methods: This was a hospital-based prospective cross-sectional observational study conducted among 60 patients with suspected bowel pathologies in the Department of Radiology, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, attached to K. R. Hospital, Mysore, over a period of 18 months from January 2021 to June 2022 after obtaining clearance from the institutional ethics committee and written informed consent from the study participants. Results: Of the 60 patients studied, 35 were males and 25 were females, with a slight male predominance. Most of the patients with benign lesions were in the age group of 30-39 years and those with malignant lesions were in the age group of 50-59 years. Most of the patients had bowel distension grade 3 (>80%) and grade 2 (50-80%), suggesting bowel distension was excellent in most of the patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of CTE in the diagnosis of benign intestinal diseases were 97%, 93%, 97%, and 93% respectively and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of CTE in the diagnosis of malignant intestinal diseases were 93%, 97%, 93% and 97% respectively. Conclusion: CT enterography is an acceptable and applicable modality in routine practice in the diagnosis and differentiation of bowel pathologies and also in differentiating benign from malignant lesions. The taste of mannitol is good, acceptable, and tolerable, all of which helped in achieving adequate luminal distension and a good quality of image with the fewest artefacts.