New methods enhance imaging of inflammatory bowel disease
The diagnosis and treatment
of inflammatory bowel diseases — especially ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s
— rely upon imaging techniques such as colonoscopy or ileal intubation. Traditional
imaging methods, however, are not uniformly capable of determining the presence
or extent of the diseases and are predominantly invasive. A colonoscopy, for example,
provokes patient discomfort and can be unenlightening because of technical difficulties
and poor preparation of the bowels.
According to Dr. Charles N. Bernstein
and Dr. Barbara A. MacKalski of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, several
emerging imaging technologies offer advantages in the diagnosis, follow-up and management
of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. In a review of these novel
tools, the authors note that conventional imaging remains the primary means to patient
care, but that equipment and techniques developed over the past five years are worthwhile
complements to methods such as colonoscopy and small bowel x-ray.
They describe and discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of wireless capsule endoscopy. They also discuss the attributes
of MRI and MRI colonography, computed tomography enteroclysis, double-balloon enteroscopy,
and transabdominal and endoscopic ultrasound. The authors conclude that wireless
endoscopy, albeit too expensive for initial diagnosis or multiple uses per patient,
is valuable for establishing Crohn’s disease when it is suspected and conventional
studies are negative or impossible to conduct. (
Gut, May 2006, pp. 733-741.)
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