Pseudo-kidney sign

An ultrasonographic appearance of circumferential gastrointestinal wall thickening forming a reniform mass, with a central hyperechoic lumen or mesentery surrounded by a hypoechoic edematous wall, resembling renal parenchyma and reflecting bowel wall edema, infiltration, or altered vascularity.

Causes

• Mechanical and obstructive causes

  • Intussusception

  • Volvulus

  • Bowel obstruction

• Malignant causes

  • Colorectal cancer

  • Gastric cancer

  • Small bowel lymphoma

  • Other infiltrative gastrointestinal tumors

• Inflammatory and infectious causes

  • Diverticulitis

  • Crohn's disease

  • Necrotizing enterocolitis

  • Infectious enterocolitis

• Bowel ischemia/infarction

• Other causes

  • Bowel wall edema from systemic inflammatory states

  • Post-radiation bowel changes