thumbprinting

thumbprinting /thumb·print·ing/ (thum´print-ing) a radiographic sign appearing as smooth indentations on the barium-filled colon, as though made by depression with the thumb.

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thumbprinting Imaging A finding in a barium study of the colon, which consists of multiple broad, sharply defined short and rounded often symmetric indentations in the contrast column; it is described in 1. Mesenteric artery ischemia or ischemic 'colitis' with infarction and intramural hematoma formation–often at splenic flexure, descending colon and 2. Ulcerative colitis. Cf Collar button lesion.