When a 25-year-old man's CT scan showed several bright, round objects inside his stomach, his doctors first suspected leftover pills. But a camera exam that morning had already captured a detail that may explain what really happened: bile was flowing backward into his stomach.
A case report in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, published Sept. 5 by doctors at Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, concludes that the objects most likely were a precipitate. It formed, they argue, when the mannitol drink he took for the scan mixed with his own digestive fluids. The authors call it a fourth cause of bright material in the stomach on CT, and they warn it could be mistaken for active bleeding.
