Use of Ultrasound, CT, CTE, and MRE to Predict the Severity of Crohn's Disease Compared

Scientists at the University of Calgary (Calgary, AB, Canada) assessed the equivalence of transabdominal ultrasound, temporally related Computed Tomography (CT), Computed Tomography Enterography (CTE), and Magnetic Resonance Enterography (MRE) for predicting disease activity and intestinal complications in patients with Crohn's disease.

The researchers made a retrospective analysis of 308 consecutive patients suffering from Crohn's disease, all of whom had ultrasound, CT, CTE, and MRE scans, without any intervening therapy. The scans were independently reviewed and graded by specialty-physicians for overall disease activity, bowel wall thickening, presence of inflammatory fat, and mural blood flow, with the intent to identify and report complications.

The results showed disease activity grades on ultrasound and reference imaging were concordant in 98.05% of patients on the basis of wall thickness, 87.13% with respect to inflammatory fat, and 96.69% on the basis of blood flow.

The researchers concluded that the use of transabdominal ultrasound was equivalent to, and even superior in some cases, to either CT or CTE/MRE in predicting disease activity and clinical complications in Crohn's disease. The researchers also concluded that ultrasound could be used effectively as a first line investigation tool for emergency and routine surveillance of the disease.

The researchers reported their findings at the 2015 European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna (Austria).

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