Intestinal ultrasound as a non-invasive tool to monitor inflammatory bowel disease activity and guide clinical decision making

Figure 1 Inflamed sigmoid colon located super to the iliac vessels and iliopsoas muscle in the left lower quadrant of the abdomen. IA: Iliac artery; IV: Iliac vein; IP: Iliopsoas muscle.

Figure 2 Measurements for bowel wall thickness. A: Schematic of bowel wall layers; B: Bowel wall thickness measurement in the inflamed terminal ileum, yellow lines indicate the measurement of bowel wall thickness from the lumen-mucosa interface to the muscularis propria-serosal interact.

Figure 3 Severe hyperemia assessed by color Doppler signal. Color Doppler signal graded by the modified Limberg score. Shown here is a modified Limberg score of 3 in the terminal ileum. A score of 0 = absent signal. A score of 1: Short signals inside the bowel. A score of 2: Long signals inside the bowel, and a score of 3: Long signals inside and outside of the bowel.

Figure 4 Intestinal ultrasound-based tight control monitoring algorithm. IUS: Intestinal ultrasound; BWT: Bowel wall thickness; CDS: Color Doppler signal.