Thickened colon:

                                                                           This ultrasound image shows grossly thickened wall of the large bowel (colon) in long section. The colonic wall thickness is a massive 1.1 cms. The anechoic line within the bowel represents the lumen. Note the diffuse increase in large bowel wall thickness, suggesting large area of involvement.                                                                          

                                                                                  And the above Power Doppler ultrasound image of the same area shows hyperemia in addition. Clearly, this patient has a chronic inflammatory bowel pathology. The differentials in this case include- ulcerative colitis, Chrohn disease and also acute conditions like infective enteritis/ colitis. This patient had h/o diarrhea and bleeding per rectum with passage of mucus and pus. The clinical history, favors an infective etiology. A barium enema would be helpful as also colonoscopy. (ultrasound images are courtesy of Dr. Vikas Shukla, MD, India).
 See: http://www.ultrasound-images.com/colon.htm for more images and description. on this topic.