What does the linear form of pneumatosis imply?
Pneumatosis is gas in the bowel wall. Linear streaks of gas within the small or large bowel wall suggest bowel ischemia but not irreversible necrosis. In patients with bowel ischemia, bowel does not contract normally and dilates. Ischemia is one of the most common causes of severe small bowel dilation. Edema, blood, or necrotic tissue in the mucosa or submucosa of the bowel wall associated with bowel ischemia may appear as nodular soft tissue densities resembling “thumbprints”.
Rounded air collections in bowel wall may be due to benign causes of rents in the mucosa, termed pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis or benign pneumatosis coli . The gas-filled blebs are most commonly detected in the colon and are associated with various clinical conditions, such as scleroderma, corticosteroid use, and celiac disease.
