Published online Oct 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i38.5884
Peer-review started: May 28, 2020
First decision: July 29, 2020
Revised: August 11, 2020
Article in press: September 11, 2020
Published online: October 14, 2020
Processing time: 139 Days and 3.2 Hours
Bowel ultrasound and magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) are decisive medical imaging modalities for diagnosing and locating bowel lesions with its extramural extent and complications. They assess the degree of activity, help clinicians to identify patients in need of surgery, and can be used for patient follow-up.
To compare the role of MRE and bowel ultrasound in diagnosis and follow-up of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in Egypt.
The study was conducted on 40 patients with IBD. All patients were subjected to clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, bowel ultrasound, MRE, and colonoscopy up to the terminal ileum with biopsies for histopathological examination.
This study was conducted on 14 patients (35%) with ulcerative colitis and 26 patients (65%) with Crohn's disease; 34 (85%) of these patients had active disease. Bowel ultrasound detected different bowel lesions with the following accuracies: ileum (85%), large bowel (70%), fistula (95%), stricture and proximal dilatation (95%) and abscesses (100%). Also, it showed that statistically significance of bowel ultrasound in differentiation between remission and activity of IBD in comparison to MRE and colonoscopy.
In comparison to MRE, bowel ultrasound is a useful, non-invasive, and feasible bedside imaging tool for the detection of inflammation, detection of complications, and follow-up of IBD patients when performed by the attending physician.
Core Tip: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic, relapsing inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Medical imaging is decisive for diagnosis bowel lesions with its complications. Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) is one of these imaging techniques. Also, bowel ultrasound is becoming progressively important in management of IBD. Our aim of work in our study is to compare between the role of MRE and bowel ultrasound in diagnosis and follow up of Egyptian IBD patients.