Gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors: roentgen features.

Isolated case reports and periodic reviews of the subject of carcinoid tumors have appeared in the medical literature for almost a century. The recent medical literature has been rich in papers dealing with the subject of carcinoid tumors due largely to the discovery of the malignant carcinoid syndrome as representing a clinical entity (1–12). The basic findings in this syndrome are chronic diarrhea, flushes and cyanosis, respiratory distress, and right-sided cardiac disease. The clinical syndrome has so far been described only in the presence of metastatic malignant carcinoids with large numbers of functioning cells, usually in the liver. For detailed pathological data with reference to sites, multiplicity, incidence, age, sex, and metastases, the reader is referred to the work of Ritchie (9). Gross Pathology The typical carcinoid tumor, which may occur in any portion of the gastrointestinal tract from the cardia to the anus, is a small submucosal nodule. Less often it is polypoid or annular in growth. T...