Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May 4;28(5):783-787.
doi: 10.1093/ibd/izab125.

Intestinal Ultrasound in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Promising, but Work in Progress

Elsa A van Wassenaer  1   2   3 , Marc A Benninga  1   2   3 , Johan L van Limbergen  1   2   3 , Geert R D'Haens  4 , Anne M Griffiths  5 , Bart G P Koot  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Intestinal Ultrasound in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Promising, but Work in Progress

Elsa A van Wassenaer et al. Inflamm Bowel Dis. .

Abstract

Intestinal ultrasound (IUS) is increasingly used and promulgated as a noninvasive monitoring tool for children with inflammatory bowel disease because other diagnostic modalities such as colonoscopy and magnetic resonance imaging cause significant stress in the pediatric population. The most important parameters of inflammation that can be assessed using IUS are bowel wall thickness and hyperemia of the bowel wall. Research has shown that IUS has the potential to be a valuable additional point-of-care tool to guide treatment choice and to monitor and predict treatment response, although evidence of its accuracy and value in clinical practice is still limited. This review gives an update and overview of the current evidence on the use and accuracy of IUS in children with inflammatory bowel disease.

Keywords: disease monitoring; inflammatory bowel disease; intestinal ultrasound; pediatrics; review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Cross-sectional image of terminal ileum in a patient with CD. A, increased BWT. B. Hyperemia with stretches reaching into mesentery. C, Mesenteric fat proliferation.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Longitudinal image of sigmoid colon in a patient with UC. Increased BWT, with loss of haustrations and loss of wall layer stratification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Maaser C, Sturm A, Vavricka SR, et al. . ECCO-ESGAR guideline for diagnostic assessment in IBD Part 1: initial diagnosis, monitoring of known IBD, detection of complications. J Crohns Colitis. 2019;13:144–164. - PubMed
    1. Colombel JF, D’Haens G, Lee WJ, et al. . Outcomes and strategies to support a treat-to-target approach in inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review. J Crohns Colitis. 2020;14:254–266. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Westra AE, Zegers MP, Sukhai RN, et al. . Discomfort in children undergoing unsedated MRI. Eur J Pediatr. 2011;170:771–777. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kara D, Bayrak NA, Volkan B, et al. . Anxiety and salivary cortisol levels in children undergoing esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy under sedation. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2019;68:3–6. - PubMed
    1. Diederen K, Hoekman DR, Hummel TZ, et al. . The prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome-type symptoms in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease, and the relationship with biochemical markers of disease activity. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2016;44:181–188. - PubMed