THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with Crohn's disease, contrast-enhanced ultrasound can accurately assess disease activity, according to a study published in the July issue of Gastroenterology.

Vincenzo Migaleddu, M.D., of the Sardinian Mediterranean Imaging Research Group in Sassari, Italy, and colleagues performed baseline ultrasound, color Doppler ultrasound, and contrast-enhanced ultrasound on 47 patients before and after injecting them with sulfur hexafluoride-filled microbubbles.

The researchers found that contrast-enhanced ultrasound showed the best performance, with a sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of 93.5, 93.7, and 93.6 percent, respectively. After microbubble injection, it identified three bowel wall perfusion patterns: submucosal enhancement, and inward and outward transparietal enhancement. They also found that contrast-enhanced ultrasound had a stronger correlation with the Crohn's disease activity index than either ultrasound or color Doppler ultrasound.

"Recent technological improvements in sonography, such as contrast-enhanced ultrasound, have increased the usefulness of this imaging modality in the diagnosis and evaluation of inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease," the authors conclude. "The routine use of the contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the clinical assessment of the patient with active Crohn's disease for therapeutical and surgical management could be suggested."

Abstract
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