Published online Aug 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i32.3637
Peer-review started: May 27, 2018
First decision: June 15, 2018
Revised: June 17, 2018
Accepted: June 25, 2018
Article in press: June 25, 2018
Published online: August 28, 2018
Processing time: 93 Days and 9.1 Hours
The vascular diseases including aneurysm, occlusion, and thromboses in the mesenteric lesions could cause severe symptoms and appropriate diagnosis and treatment are essential for managing patients. With the development and improvement of imaging modalities, diagnostic frequency of these vascular diseases in abdominal lesions is increasing even with the small changes in the vasculatures. Among various vascular diseases, fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and segmental arterial mediolysis (SAM) are noninflammatory, nonatherosclerotic arterial diseases which need to be diagnosed urgently because these diseases could affect various organs and be lethal if the appropriate management is not provided. However, because FMD and SAM are rare, the cause, prevalence, clinical characteristics including the symptoms, findings in the imaging studies, pathological findings, management, and prognoses have not been systematically summarized. Therefore, there have been neither standard diagnostic criteria nor therapeutic methodologies established, to date. To systematically summarize the information and to compare these disease entities, we have summarized the characteristics of FMD and SAM in the gastroenterological regions by reviewing the cases reported thus far. The information summarized will be helpful for physicians treating these patients in an emergency care unit and for the differential diagnosis of other diseases showing severe abdominal pain.
Core tip: The vascular diseases in the abdominal lesions needs to be appropriately diagnosed and treated as it could be lethal if the appropriate management is not provided. Mesenteric ischemia caused by the atherosclerotic changes is rather famous however, fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and segmental arterial mediolysis (SAM) which are noninflammatory, nonatherosclerotic arterial diseases are rare and the cause, prevalence, clinical characteristics including the symptoms, findings in the imaging studies, pathological findings, management, and prognoses have not been systematically summarized. Therefore, we have summarized the characteristics of FMD and SAM in the gastroenterological regions and review the cases reported thus far. The information summarized will be helpful for physicians treating these patients in an emergency care unit and for the differential diagnosis of other diseases showing severe abdominal pain.