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

Intestinal ultrasound(IUS)is a non-invasive,real-time,cross-sectional imaging tool that can be used at the point-of-care to assess disease activity in patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.IUS promotes quick and impactful treatment decisions that can modify disease progression and enhance patient compliance.This review will summarize the technical aspects of IUS,the evidence to support the use of IUS in disease activity monitoring,the comparison of IUS to current standard of care monitoring modalities such as colonoscopy and calprotectin,and the optimal positioning of IUS in a tight-control monitoring strategy.

Prognostic role of intestinal ultrasound in Crohn’s disease

The majority of patients affected by Crohn’s disease(CD)develop a chronic condition with persistent inflammation and relapses that may cause progressive and irreversible damage to the bowel,resulting in stricturing or penetrating complications in around 50%of patients during the natural history of the disease.Surgery is frequently needed to treat complicated disease when pharmacological therapy failes,with a high risk of repeated operations in time.Intestinal ultrasound(IUS),a non-invasive,cost-effective,radiation free and reproducible method for the diagnosis and follow-up of CD,in expert hands,allow a precise assessment of all the disease manifestations:Bowel characteristics,retrodilation,wrapping fat,fistulas and abscesses.Moreover,IUS is able to assess bowel wall thickness,bowel wall stratification(echo-pattern),vascularization and elasticity,as well as mesenteric hypertrophy,lymph-nodes and mesenteric blood flow.Its role in the disease evaluation and behaviour description is well assessed in literature,but less is known about the potential space of IUS as predictor of prognostic factors suggesting response to a medical treatment or postoperative recurrence.The availability of a low cost exam as IUS,able to recognize which patients are more likely to respond to a specific therapy and which patients are at high risk of surgery or complications,could be a very useful instrument in the hands of IBD physician.The aim of this review is to present current evidence about the prognostic role that IUS can show in predicting response to treatment,disease progression,risk of surgery and risk of post-surgical recurrence in CD.

Transmural Healing Evaluated by Intestinal Ultrasound in Patients with Crohn’s Disease Treated with Infliximab

Background and Aims: Transmural healing (TH) has been recently proposed as a measure of deep remission in Crohn’s disease (CD). This study aimed to explore the rate of TH evaluated by intestinal ultrasound (IUS) in patients with CD treated with infliximab (IFX) and its predictive value for long-time clinical remission. Methods: Sixty-four consecutive active CD patients prescribed IFX were retrospectively recruited and followed for at least 2 years. Patients underwent IUS evaluation including bowel wall thickness, stratification, vascularity and mesenteric fat alteration at baseline and 14 weeks after IFX initiation. TH (normalization of all IUS parameters) was assessed at 14 weeks. Results: Fifteen (23.4%) patients achieved TH at 14 weeks, who were at lower risk of clinical relapse during the maintenance period than patients without TH [relative risk (RR) 0.132, P = 0.020]. The multivariate analysis indicated that TH (RR = 0.076, 95% CI: 0.007 - 0.773, P = 0.029) at 14 weeks were negative independent predictors of clinical relapse for patients who achieved steroid-free CR after the induction period. Patients with serum IFX trough levels >3 ug/ml were more likely to achieve TH at 14 weeks (34.3% vs. 10.7%, P = 0.029). Conclusion: IUS is useful in assessing TH, which predicts long-term clinical remission in patients with CD prescribed infliximab.

Role of intestinal ultrasound in ulcerative colitis: A systematic review

BACKGROUND Intestinal ultrasound(IUS)is an emerging,non-invasive,and highly sensitive diagnostic tool in inflammatory bowel disease(IBD),including ulcerative colitis(UC).Despite its potential,its adoption in clinical practice is limited due to a lack of standardization and awareness.AIM To perform a comprehensive scoping review based on a systematic literature review on IUS in UC to inform current practice.METHODS Ninety-nine original articles about ultrasonography in UC were identified among 7608 citations searching PubMed and EMBASE databases for systematic review.RESULTS IUS can be useful as an initial diagnostic strategy in patients with suspected IBD/UC.In UC,IUS can predict endoscopic response,histologic healing,and steroid responsiveness in acute severe cases.IUS can predict response to biologics/small molecules(as early as 2 wk).IUS correlates well with ileocolonoscopy,but IUS could miss rectal,jejunal,and upper GI lesions in suspected IBD and colon polyps or extra-intestinal manifestations in known IBD.IUS is useful in special situations(children,pregnancy,and postoperative Crohn's disease).Inter-observer agreement is acceptable and trained physicians have comparable diagnostic accuracy.Point-of-care ultrasound impacted management in 40%-60%of cases.Hand-held IUS has excellent agreement with conventional IUS.CONCLUSION IUS is a non-invasive,highly sensitive tool in the diagnosis and monitoring of UC,offering excellent patient satisfaction.Point-of-care ultrasound by IBD physicians can significantly impact clinical decision-making.

Transabdominal intestinal ultrasound and its parameters used in the assessment of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

This article extends on the use of transabdominal intestinal ultrasound in diagnosing pediatric inflammatory bowel disease.Some of the more essential features used in assessing bowel inflammation,such as hyperemia and wall thickness on ultrasound,are expanded upon from the publication on imaging and endoscopic tools in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease.

Treat to target in Crohn’s disease:A practical guide for clinicians

A treat-to-target(T2T)approach applies the principles of early intervention and tight disease control to optimise long-term outcomes in Crohn's disease.The Selecting Therapeutic Targets in Inflammatory Bowel Disease(STRIDE)-II guidelines specify short,intermediate,and long-term treatment goals,documenting specific treatment targets to be achieved at each of these timepoints.Scheduled appraisal of Crohn’s disease activity against pre-defined treatment targets at these timepoints remains central to determining whether current therapy should be continued or modified.Consensus treatment targets in Crohn’s disease comprise combination clinical and patient-reported outcome remission,in conjunction with biomarker normalisation and endoscopic healing.Although the STRIDE-II guidelines endorse the pursuit of endoscopic healing,clinicians must consider that this may not always be appropriate,acceptable,or achievable in all patients.This underscores the need to engage patients at the outset in an effort to personalise care and individualise treatment targets.The use of non-invasive biomarkers such as faecal calprotectin in conjunction with cross-sectional imaging techniques,particularly intestinal ultrasound,holds great promise;as do emerging treatment targets such as transmural healing.Two randomised clinical trials,namely,CALM and STARDUST,have evaluated the efficacy of a T2T approach in achieving endoscopic endpoints in patients with Crohn’s disease.Findings from these studies reflect that patient subgroups and Crohn’s disease characteristics likely to benefit most from a T2T approach,remain to be clarified.Moreover,outside of clinical trials,data pertaining to the real-world effectiveness of a T2T approach remains scare,highlighting the need for pragmatic real-world studies.Despite the obvious promise of a T2T approach,a lack of guidance to support its integration into real-world clinical practice has the potential to limit its uptake.This highlights the need to describe strategies,processes,and models of care capable of supporting the integration and execution of a T2T approach in real-world clinical practice.Hence,this review seeks to examine the current and emerging literature to provide clinicians with practical guidance on how to incorporate the principles of T2T into routine clinical practice for the management of Crohn’s disease.

Imaging and endoscopic tools in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: What’s new?

Pediatric inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is a chronic inflammatory disorder,with increasing incidence and prevalence worldwide.There have been recent advances in imaging and endoscopic technology for disease diagnosis,treatment,and monitoring.Intestinal ultrasound,including transabdominal,transperineal,and endoscopic,has been emerging for the assessment of transmural bowel inflammation and disease complications(e.g.,fistula,abscess).Aside from surgery,IBD-related intestinal strictures now have endoscopic treatment options including through-the-scope balloon dilatation,injection,and needle knife stricturotomy and new evaluation tools such as endoscopic functional lumen imaging probe.Unsedated transnasal endoscopy may have a role in patients with upper gastrointestinal Crohn’s disease or those with IBD with new upper gastrointestinal symptoms.Improvements to dysplasia screening in pediatric patients with longstanding colonic disease or primary sclerosing cholangitis hold promise with the addition of virtual chromoendoscopy and ongoing research in the field of artificial intelligence-assisted endoscopic detection.Artificial intelligence and machine learning is a rapidly evolving field,with goals of further personalizing IBD diagnosis and treatment selection as well as prognostication.This review summarized these advancements,focusing on pediatric patients with IBD.