A Degrading Potassium Tablet Mimicking Active Gastric Bleeding in a Computer Tomographic Investigation

Abstract

A 54-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital due to symptoms caused by an intramural hematoma of the descending aorta. In a contrast media-enhanced computed tomography scan performed five days after admission to evaluate dynamics of the hematoma, a hyperdense lesion was seen in the stomach. A suspicion of gastric hemorrhage was raised at the first evaluation. Because the patient’s clinical condition and hemoglobin levels were stable, gastroscopy to rule out an aorto-gastric fistula or another type of bleeding was not undertaken. In the secondary evaluation of the history and images, it became clear that the hyperdense lesion mimicking bleeding in the stomach must have been caused by a degrading potassium tablet ingested by the patient five hours before the investigation.