title: Endoscopic scoring systems for inflammatory bowel disease: pros and cons.
abstract: Endoscopy plays a pivotal role for diagnosis and assessment of disease activity and extent in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. International guidelines recommend the use of endoscopic scoring systems for evaluation of the prognosis and efficacy of medical treatments. Ideal scoring systems are easy to use, reproducible, reliable, responsive to changes, and validated in different clinical settings in order to guide therapeutic strategies. However, currently available endoscopic scoring systems often appear as complex for routine endoscopy and suffer from insufficient interobserver agreement and lack of formal validation which often limit their use in clinical trials. Here, we describe the role of endoscopic scoring systems in inflammatory bowel diseases focusing on pros and cons in the era of advanced endoscopic imaging and mucosal healing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine 1, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Ulmenweg 18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Gian Eugenio
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Tontini
authors.forename: Raf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bisschops
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neumann
mesh_terms: D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014945:Wound Healing
keywords: Crohn’s disease; advanced endoscopic imaging; colonoscopy; disease activity indices; endoscopic disease activity; inflammatory bowel disease; mucosal activity; mucosal healing; ulcerative colitis