Elliot K. Fishman M.D.
Professor of Radiology, Surgery, Oncology and Urology
Johns Hopkins Hospital

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"Sclerosing mesenteritis is a rare inflammatory condition of unknown cause that affects the root of the mesentery. The mesenteric fat is involved with a variable amount of inflammation, fatty necrosis, and fibrosis. When the inflammation predominates (so-called mesenteric panniculitis), patients generally present with acute pain. On CT images, mesenteric panniculitis appears as a focal area of increased attenuation within the mesenteric fat surrounded by a pseudocapsule, an appearance that has been described as "the misty mesentery". Areas of fibrosis within the inflamed fat appear as linear bands of soft-tissue attenuation ."
Mesenteric Neoplasms: CT Appearances of Primary and Secondary Tumors and Differential Diagnosis
Sheth S, Horton KM, Garland MR, Fishman EK
RadioGraphics Mar 2003, Vol. 23, No. 2:457–473

“At CT, the most common manifestation of mesenteric carcinoid tumors is that of an enhancing soft-tissue mass with linear bands radiating in the mesenteric fat . Radiologic-pathologic correlation has shown that these radiating strands of soft tissue do not generally represent tumor infiltration along neurovascular bundles but rather result from the intense fibrotic proliferation and desmoplastic reaction in the mesenteric fat and the adjacent mesenteric vessels caused by the release of serotonin and other hormones from the primary tumor ."
Mesenteric Neoplasms: CT Appearances of Primary and Secondary Tumors and Differential Diagnosis
Sheth S, Horton KM, Garland MR, Fishman EK
RadioGraphics Mar 2003, Vol. 23, No. 2:457–473