While I am contemplating 
to actually starting a podcast that would review the GI literature in some detail on a monthly basis, i will prepare myself by posting a few reviews of the articles that sparked my interest/I feel are important for a gastroenterologist to be aware of.
I start with the March 10th Issue of NEJM, which has a nice summary article on Mesenteric Ischemia. Now if you are looking for a quick-guide to how to diagnose it or how to treat it – this is NOT the article for you. But if you want the details on exact specificity/sensitivity of different imaging modalities ( it happens to be 85% Sensitive-90% specific on Ultrasound, for example, and CTA is 95-100% Accurate) – then this is the article for you – you can download it and file it away for when you need the info. It is too bad that the authors did not want to make a table such as this (found and cited elsewhere):(which they cite as reference 26)
But I understand that the aim here was to give a more “comprehensive” view on what mesenteric ischemia is for the general reader. It has nice figures with examples of CTA with acute embolus to SMA, as well as chronic mesenteric ischemia with occlusion of SMA in setting of a celiac stent occlusion.
For the endoscopists amongst us, nothing is more true:”…endoscopic examination does not reach the majority of sections of the small bowel that are most frequently involved in mesenteric ischemia…” so dont scope of VCE these patients for no reason.
And now for clinical pearl:
Lawrence Brandt – a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine – one of the first persons to expose me to the wonderful world of gastroenterology loves to talk about non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia – NOMI – Overall mortality is 50% – Mostly in patients with cardiac disease/complications/recent cardiac surgery. Papaverine hydrochloride through a catheter infusion can be considered. Not sure where else we can use Papaverine for a GI condition (let me know if you know).
To remember NOMI, Dr. Brandt usually brings up is a person in their 70s, with HTN, has an MI with hypotension, then stented, was put on beta blocker, and clopidogrel/aspirin, then develops severe abdominal pain. Exam is with mild tenderness, labs are unhelpful. INR is 2.1, everything else is ok. What’s the diagnosis? – NOMI! Why? – vasoconstriction that is persistent,as a reaction to a previous insult, even if precipitating event is gone.
References as cited or linked.
