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World J Meta-Anal. Feb 28, 2021; 9(1): 40-44
Published online Feb 28, 2021. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v9.i1.40
Non-invasive diagnosis of Crohn’s disease: All that glitters is not gold
Mohammed Khorshid, Mohammad Abdel Khalik Elkady, Rana Abdelkarim, Mohamed El-Nady
Mohammed Khorshid, Rana Abdelkarim, Department of Clinical Research, EDGE Foundation, Cairo 11936, Egypt
Mohammad Abdel Khalik Elkady, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Cairo 00000, Egypt
Mohamed El-Nady, Department of Internal Medicine, Kasr Alainy Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 00000, Egypt
Author contributions: Khorshid M contributed to the idea and the primary draft of this study; Elkady MAK contributed to the collection and analysis of reference articles; Abdelkarim R wrote the manuscript; El-Nady M revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC 4.0), 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/
Corresponding author: Mohammed Khorshid, FASGE, MBChB, MSc, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Doctor, Department of Clinical Research, EDGE Foundation, Villa 82H, Maadi Heights, Tabarak, Ring Road After Carrefour Maadi, Cairo 11936, Egypt. khorshid@edgefound.org
Received: December 17, 2020
Peer-review started: December 17, 2020
First decision: January 10, 2021
Revised: February 3, 2021
Accepted: February 25, 2021
Article in press: February 25, 2021
Published online: February 28, 2021
Processing time: 75 Days and 10.6 Hours
Abstract

Crohn’s disease (CD) is associated with occurrence of inflammation in the digestive tract. Diagnosing intestinal bowel diseases can be difficult because bowel disease can be tricky as it does not have unique symptoms. Endoscopy and histopathological tests play a crucial role in the diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel diseases. Various techniques can be used to diagnose CD. Nevertheless, the diagnosis of CD mostly requires having patients in the hospital. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, that might not be very feasible, as minimizing contact is essential, but can an alternative diagnosis technique be enough to provide a definitive diagnosis?

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; Inflammatory bowel disease; Diagnosis; Noninvasive; Histopathology; Overdiagnosis

Core Tip: Diagnosing intestinal bowel diseases can be difficult because bowel disease can be tricky as it does not have unique symptoms. Endoscopy and histopathological tests play a crucial role in the diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel diseases. However, various techniques can be used to diagnose Crohn’s disease.