title: Small bowel Crohn's disease: comparison of enteroclysis, bowel sonography and Tc-99m-HMPAO leukocyte scintigraphy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Crohn's disease (CD) frequently involves the small bowel. Actually, the diagnosis of CD is made by ileocolonoscopy (IC) and small bowel enteroclysis (SBE), while trans-abdominal bowel sonography (BS) and Tc-99m-HMPAO leukocyte scintigraphy (LS) are only partially used in spite of their minimal invasiveness.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to compare the diagnostic accuracy of these procedures for the diagnosis of small bowel CD.
  
  
  METHODS
  in about two years a series of consecutive subjects underwent IC, SBE, BS and LS for either suspected or known small bowel CD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value for CD diagnosis of the studied procedures were respectively: 98%, 97%, 98% and 97% for SBE; 92%, 97%, 98%, and 88% for BS; 90%, 93%, 96% and 85% for LS. In addition, the parallel combined use of BS and LS led to overall sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of 100%, 93%, 96%, 100%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SBE, BS and LS are accurate procedures for the diagnosis of small bowel Crohn's disease. The use of BS and LS, particularly in combination, can be proposed as early diagnostic approach to subjects with a suspicion of disease.
authors.affiliation: Gastroenterology, Federico II University of Naples (Italy).
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rispo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imbriaco
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Celentano
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cozzolino
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Mainenti
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Camera
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Di Girolamo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: De Falco
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Castiglione
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003113:Colonoscopy; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D016145:Endoscopy, Digestive System; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D014463:Ultrasonography
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime