Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Oct 28, 2016; 8(10): 829-845
Published online Oct 28, 2016. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i10.829
Role of molecular imaging in the management of patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease: State-of-the-art
Federico Caobelli, Laura Evangelista, Natale Quartuccio, Demetrio Familiari, Corinna Altini, Angelo Castello, Mariapaola Cucinotta, Rossella Di Dato, Cristina Ferrari, Aurora Kokomani, Iashar Laghai, Riccardo Laudicella, Silvia Migliari, Federica Orsini, Salvatore Antonio Pignata, Cristina Popescu, Erinda Puta, Martina Ricci, Silvia Seghezzi, Alessandro Sindoni, Martina Sollini, Letterio Sturiale, Anna Svyridenka, Vittoria Vergura, Pierpaolo Alongi, Young AIMN Working Group
Federico Caobelli, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Universitätsspital Basel, CH-4032 Basel, Switzerland
Laura Evangelista, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Istituto Oncologico Veneto, 35121 Padua, Italy
Natale Quartuccio, Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, University of Manchester, M20 3JJ Manchester, United Kingdom
Demetrio Familiari, Department of Nuclear Medicine, A.R.N.A.S. Garibaldi, 95121 Catania, Italy
Corinna Altini, Cristina Ferrari, Nuclear Medicine Unit, University “Aldo Moro” of Bari, 70121 Bari, Italy
Angelo Castello, Rossella Di Dato, Aurora Kokomani, Iashar Laghai, Vittoria Vergura, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Mariapaola Cucinotta, Department of medical-surgical science and translational medicine, “La Sapienza” University, 00118 Rome, Italy
Riccardo Laudicella, Salvatore Antonio Pignata, Alessandro Sindoni, Letterio Sturiale, Nuclear Medicine Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98121 Messina, Italy
Silvia Migliari, Martina Ricci, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy
Federica Orsini, Erinda Puta, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital “Maggiore della Carità di Novara”, 28100 Novara, Italy
Cristina Popescu, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Niguarda Ca' Grande Hospital, 20100 Milan, Italy
Silvia Seghezzi, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hospital of Treviglio, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Martina Sollini, Humanitas University, Rozzano, 20089 Milan, Italy
Anna Svyridenka, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Bologna, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Pierpaolo Alongi, Nuclear Medicine Unit, Department of Radiological Sciences, G. Giglio Institute, 90015 Cefalu, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors hereby declare that no one of the coworkers has received fees for serving as a speaker, no one holds a position as advisory board member, none has received research funding, no one owns stocks and/or shares in any Companies, no one owns patents.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available. A formal consent was not obtained due to the nature of the present paper (Review of already published papers).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Federico Caobelli, MD, FEBNM, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Universitätsspital Basel, Petersgraben 4, CH-4032 Basel, Switzerland. federico.caobelli@usb.ch
Telephone: +41-61-3286329
Received: March 25, 2016
Peer-review started: March 26, 2016
First decision: May 17, 2016
Revised: June 30, 2016
Accepted: August 27, 2016
Article in press: August 29, 2016
Published online: October 28, 2016
Processing time: 215 Days and 20.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic granulomatous inflammatory condition, in which the integrity of the gut epithelium represents a major pathophysiological step. Although endoscopy and barium radiological examinations are the diagnostic “gold standard” for IBD, both techniques require a specific patient preparation, not always feasible or easily tolerated. Molecular imaging with single photon emission tomography and positron emission tomography seems to be a reliable, non-invasive, accurate and easily reproducible diagnostic tool, able to assess location, extent and activity grade of IBD. We here present the current state-of-the art of molecular imaging in the management of patients affected by IBD.