CT of the bowel: use of water to enhance depiction.

To enhance computed tomography (CT) of the bowel walls, water was administered into the colon through the rectum in 42 patients: 16 with rectal cancer, 22 with other colon carcinomas, and four with tumors originating in the pelvic organs. The technique provided a good evaluation of the bowel walls; the presence and extension of the intestinal tumors was assessed in all cases, and infiltrations of the bowel wall from the pelvic tumors were excluded.