2016 Volume 36 Issue 1 Pages 95-98
An 87-year-old male admitted as an emergency with abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. At the time of admission there was severe tenderness over the whole abdomen. In addition, the serum CEA level was raised as high as 552.6ng/mL, suggesting a high inflammatory reaction. The CT imaging revealed an accumulation of ascites and free air. The patient was diagnosed as having a perforation in the digestive tract and an emergency operation was performed. Necrosis was observed broadly from the transverse to recto-sigmoid colon, so we performed Hartman’s operation. A blood test which was performed 22 days after the operation revealed that the serum CEA level had normalized to 2.4ng/mL and no malignancy was seen in the pathological examination. The final diagnosis was necrotic ischemic colitis. This may be a rare situation, but severe ischemic colitis can be involved in the pathogenesis of high serum CEA levels.
