Epinephrine Effect in Angiography of Colonic Carcinoma

Mesenteric angiography has been performed before and after intra-arterial injection of epinephrine in 16 patients with carcinoma of the colon. In this group of patients, epinephrine had little value in the angiographic diagnosis of the carcinoma. It aided in the diagnosis in six patients, detracted in four, and made no difference to the diagnosis in six. In all patients, the tumor vessels were less well filled in the postepinephrine study than before epineph-rine, and in three patients, vasoconstriction following epinephrine prevented filling of the tumor vessels. The only potential use for epinephrine was suggested by the six patients with much inflammation accompanying the carcinoma. In these patients a marked decrease in the opacification of the inflammatory mass surrounding the tumor made the tumor vessels and infiltration seem relatively more apparent.