Ces radiol. 2018, 72(3):151-160 | DOI: 10.55095/CesRadiol2018/022

MR enterographic evaluation of the small bowel Crohn's subtypesReview article

Zuzana Líšková¹, Katarína Sláviková¹, Peter Mikula², Viera Lehotská³

¹ Radiológia s.r.o., CT and MR department, University Hospital Bratislava, Slovakia

² 1^st Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Medical University and University Hospital Bratislava, Slovakia

³ 2^nd Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava and St. Elizabeth's Cancer Institute Bratislava, Slovakia

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract that can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus. It typically involves multiple discontinuous sites, with a tendency toward remission and relapse. Abdominal symptoms may be nonspecific and can result from active inflammation or from fibrotic scarring and stricture formation. Activity assessment of the disease is important to optimize the therapy. MR enterography has a high soft-tissue contrast so it plays an important role in management of the patient with Crohn disease. It can differentiate active inflammation from chronic fibrosis and strictures and advance the patient to a more aggressive pharmacologic therapy or to surgical intervention if a significant stricture is found.

Keywords: Crohn disease, enterography, inflammatory bowel disease, MRI

Accepted: June 15, 2018; Published: September 1, 2018  Show citation