The importance of intestinal ultrasound and elastographic techniques in inflammatory bowel diseases.

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases have an important impact upon the economic and social status due to their increasing incidenceand prevalence, often affecting young people. At the moment, the therapeutic goal goes beyond the improvementof symptoms and laboratory parameters, being represented by endoscopic mucosal healing, changing the disease's naturalhistory. Even though endoscopy is the gold standard for the assessment of mucosal healing, it is an invasive maneuver and itlacks good repeatability. These patients require frequent evaluation; therefore, interest for noninvasive techniques has risen.As a consequence, the importance of intestinal ultrasound has increased lately and recent studies support its use to assess thedegree of inflammation, to differentiate between remission and relapse, to monitor therapy response and guide treatment, toevaluate prognosis, and to diagnose complications. Another promising noninvasive imagistic technique is elastography whichhas gained interest because of its capacity to discriminate between inflammatory and fibrotic tissue, taking into account thedifferent therapeutic options for the fibrotic strictures compared to inflammatory processes. This review summarizes the actualrecommendations regarding the use of intestinal ultrasound and elastographic techniques for the diagnosis and monitoring ofinflammatory bowel diseases.