"The submucosal fat halo used to be considered nearly pathognomonic of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis) or, less commonly, due to cytoreductive therapy and graft versus host disease. However, a retrospective review of 100 consecutive CT exams performed for reasons other than gastrointestinal disease found the fat halo sign in 21% of subjects, leading to the conclusion that "in the absence of clinical or radiological evidence of inflammatory bowel disease, the presence of the fat halo sign may represent a normal finding that is possibly related to obesity." 1."
"The fat halo sign (in colonic imaging) refers to a feature seen on CT abdominal scans, and represents infiltration of the submucosa with fat, between the muscularis propria and the mucosa. It is characterised by an inner (mucosa) and outer (muscularis propria and serosa) ring of enhancing bowel wall along with a non-enhancing middle layer of fat (submucosa) 1-3."