Current status of small-bowel ultrasound.

Ultrasonography offers direct imaging of the bowel wall and allows dynamic evaluation of peristalsis. It helps to differentiate eosinophilic gastroenteritis from regional enteritis and lymphoma, displays a typical appearance in intussusception and is quite specific in the afferent loop syndrome, closed-loop obstruction and lymphedema. It may be helpful in ischemia of the bowel and in the evaluation of acute appendicitis.