Multidetector row CT of the small bowel.

Multidetector row CT (MDCT) has become an imaging technique of choice to study routinely the small bowel. Thin collimation and fast scanning allow coverage of the entire abdomen within a single suspended respiration phase allowing the use of multiple enhancement phases after intravenous contrast administration. MDCT of the small bowel can identify and stage most of the common diseases of the small bowel. MDCT is changing the paradigm for diagnosing small bowel disease by becoming the first diagnostic line for almost all small bowel diseases. MDCT has the needed sensitivity and specificity, the availability, and the safety for a front-line diagnostic method.