Significance of peribiliary oedema on computed tomography in diagnosis and severity assessment of acute cholangitis

Objectives: To evaluate usefulness of peribiliary oedema on computed tomography (CT) in diagnosing acute cholangitis and assessing its severity. Materials and methods: Sixty patients (male 59%, mean age 67.3 years) who underwent endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage (ERBD) for suspected biliary obstruction within 6 h after contrast-enhanced CT were evaluated. Two radiologists performed a consensus evaluation of CT for the presence of peribiliary oedema. Patients were divided into the cholangitis group and the non-cholangitis group based on clinical and ERBD findings, and CT results were compared between the two groups. In the cholangitis group, laboratory values and blood culture results were compared between those with and without peribiliary oedema. Chi-squared test was used for analyses. Results: Of 60 enrolled patients, there were 46 patients in the cholangitis group and 14 patients in the non-cholangitis group. Peribiliary oedema was seen in 24/46 (52.2%) patients in the cholangitis group and 3/14 (23.3%) patients in the non-cholangitis group (p = 0.043). In the cholangitis group, positive blood culture was seen in 12/24 (50%) patients with peribiliary oedema and 4/22 (18.1%) patients without it (p = 0.03). Conclusions: Peribiliary oedema appears to be useful for diagnosis and severity assessment of acute cholangitis