Detection of alimentary tract hemorrhage on contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is a common clinical scenario, and endoscopy is necessary to identify the bleeding site and control the hemorrhage.(1,2) In practice, if the bleeding point or at least the general area of the site can be identified before urgent endoscopy, the examination can be focused on that region, and the most appropriate endoscopic procedure, such as colonoscopy or enteroscopy, may be selected. We applied contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEU) to localize the site of overt GI tract bleeding using the intravenous contrast agent Levovist (SHU 508A; Schering AG, Berlin, Germany). To our knowledge, there have not been any previous reports on the use of ultrasonography to detect GI bleeding.