No abstract

Acute mesenteric ischemia is defined as an inadequate blood supply to the gastrointestinal tract resulting in ischemic and inflammatory injury that may progress to necrosis of the bowel wall. Prognosis is poor with a mortality rate greater than 95% without treatment, dropping to around 70% when surgical treatment is performed. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) has become the cornerstone of the diagnosis by showing features of vascular disorders (occlusion and/or insufficient blood supply) and features of intestinal ischemic injury. CT should be performed as rapidly as possible. Imaging-based patient management is required, and multimodal and multidisciplinary management should be introduced. The treatment involves multidisciplinary management by gastroenterologists, vascular and digestive surgeons, cardiologists, intensivists, and diagnostic and interventional radiologists. Based on our experience at a dedicated mesenteric stroke center, this article gives an overview of the diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia. The goal of this review is to improve the understanding of the imaging-based diagnosis to further improve the management of this life-threatening condition.

Early diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) remains a clinical challenge, and no biomarker has been consistently validated. We aimed to assess the accuracy of three promising circulating biomarkers for diagnosing AMI—citrulline, intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP), and d-lactate. A cross-sectional diagnostic study enrolled AMI patients admitted to the intestinal stroke center and controls with acute abdominal pain of another origin. We included 129 patients—50 AMI and 79 controls. Plasma citrulline concentrations were significantly lower in AMI patients compared to the controls [15.3 μmol/L (12.0–26.0) vs. 23.3 μmol/L (18.3–29.8), p = 0.001]. However, the area under the receiver operating curves (AUROC) for the diagnosis of AMI by Citrulline was low: 0.68 (95% confidence interval = 0.58–0.78). No statistical difference was found in plasma I-FABP and plasma d-lactate concentrations between the AMI and control groups, with an AUROC of 0.44, and 0.40, respectively. In this large cross-sectional study, citrulline, I-FABP, and d-lactate failed to differentiate patients with AMI from patients with acute abdominal pain of another origin. Further research should focus on the discovery of new biomarkers.