New guidelines on gastrointestinal ultrasound (GIUS)

Abstract

There are many guidelines and clinical recommendations released by EFSUMB during the years. An EFSUMB Task Force Group (TFG) with experts from all over Europe has continuously worked since 2014 to generate GIUS guidelines on various topics. The world's first ever guidelines on gastrointestinal ultrasound (GIUS) on methodology and scanning techniques was published by EFSUMB in 2016 (1). The following topic was on ultrasound in inflammatory bowel disease (2), and subsequently acute appendicitis and diverticulitis (3) and endoanal, endorecatal and perineal US (4) were released. Other GIUS guidelines are also in progress: miscellaneous diseases, surgical conditions, and functional ultrasound. All the EFSUMB guidelines and position statements can be downloaded from our website www.efsumb.org . Gastrointestinal ultrasound (GIUS) offers a unique possibility to examine non-invasively and in physiological condition the bowel including extra-intestinal features such as the splanchnic vessels, mesentery, oment and lymph nodes. For properly trained users, GIUS has been shown to have good accuracy and repeatability not only in a primary work-up of patients, but also in the follow up of chronic diseases. When reporting findings in GIUS the most discriminatory parameters include bowel wall thickness, length and distribution of bowel wall thickening, an assessment of the preservation of layering and asymmetry of any changes. The presence of fat wrapping and fatty creeping is a highly specific finding in Crohn's disease and should be included in the report when present. The presence of complications such as fistulae, strictures, absceses, and fluid collections, together with functional findings such as enteric content and the presence of bowel dilatation and peristalsis should also be noted in the examination report.