Ischaemic Colitis

Ischemic colitis is becoming increasingly one of the most important conditions involving the colon. This is due to a combination of multiple factors: (1) increasing age of the world population due to improved public health conditions and advances in medicine; (2) diagnostic advances in recognizing the condition; and, (3) education of physicians who suspect the disease in elderly individuals with colonic symptoms. The disease is a great masquerader of other conditions and can be mistaken for ulcerative colitis, Crohns disease or almost any other inflammatory disease of the large bowel. It can have shallow ulcers, deep ulcers, filiform polyps, and pseudomembrane. It can produce fistulae or toxic megacolon. The thumb- printing and other acute findings are not always seen and the site of involvement may be atypical. It is therefore so important to have a book dealing with this condition extensively and in detail. This scholarly presentation based on large clinical experience significantly contributes to the knowledge of this important disease that will assume even more importance as other conditions involving the colon are successfully treated. As physicians, radiologists and even pathologists have difficulty in diagnosing this condition that appears under multiple guises the information contained here should be invaluable. Alexander R. Margulis, M. D. March 1984, San Francisco PREFACE First of all, I would like to congratulate the authors on their successful publication of this monograph with many diagnostic radiographs of new touch taken by the modern technique.