Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 14, Issue 4 283-287, Copyright © 1995 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
The antral nipple sign of pyloric mucosal prolapse: endoscopic correlation of a new sonographic observation in patients with pyloric stenosis
M. Hernanz-Schulman, P. Dinauer, M. M. Ambrosino, D. B. Polk and W. W. Neblett 3rd
Department of Radiology, Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2675, USA.
This study describes the antral nipple sign of pyloric mucosal prolapse, a
newly delineated sonographic observation in patients with pyloric stenosis,
correlates the endoscopic findings, and examines its prevalence and
significance in 31 consecutive patients with pyloric stenosis. Fifty
patients who did not have pyloric stenosis served as the control
population. The antral nipple sign consists of visualization of prolapsed,
hypertrophied pyloric mucosa protruding into the gastric antrum. Using the
Wilcoxon scores (rank sums), there was no significant difference among the
patients in age, weight, or pyloric muscle dimensions. Although the
diagnosis of pyloric stenosis is made on the basis of muscle thickness, we
have documented that the pyloric mucosa becomes redundant in infants with
pyloric stenosis, permitting a fuller understanding of the anatomic
correlate underlying the sonographic images.
