Graft-vs.-Host disease of the gastrointestinal tract - Report of three cases

The role of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is growing world-wide in the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and aplastic anemia. However, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), especially in the acute form, is one of the life threatening complications of BMT. Graft-versus-host disease is characterized by skin rash, hepatocellular dysfunction, and secretory diarrhea with destruction of the intestinal mucosa. Considering the predictable increase in the number of BMT cases in the near future in Japan, we feel that there will be a great benefit in the management of such patients if both clinicians and radiologists are familiar with the clinical manifestations of GVHD. We, herein, report on our cases of acute GVHD which showed typical radiographic features of the affected small intestine.