title: Recent trends in diagnostic techniques for inflammatory bowel disease.
abstract: Although ileocolonoscopy is the gold standard for diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease and is useful for assessing the disease severity in the colon and terminal ileum, several alternative diagnostic techniques have been developed recently. For ulcerative colitis (UC), magnification colonoscopy, endocytoscopy, and confocal laser endomicroscopy enable assessment of histological inflammation without the need for biopsy. Capsule endoscopy is useful for detection of small intestinal and colonic lesions in both female and male patients. For UC, capsule endoscopy may be useful for evaluating colonic inflammation in patients with a previous poor colonoscopy experience, while it should be used only in Crohn's disease (CD) patients with unexplained symptoms when other examinations are negative. Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) is particularly useful for detecting transmural inflammation, stenosis, and extraintestinal lesions, including abscesses and fistulas. MRE is also useful when evaluating small and large intestinal lesions, even in cases with severe strictures in which full evaluation of the small bowel would be virtually impossible using other devices. Therefore, the appropriate diagnostic devices for detecting CD lesions in the small and large intestine should be used.
authors.affiliation: Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naganuma
authors.affiliation: Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hosoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanai
authors.affiliation: Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Haruhiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogata
mesh_terms: D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003581:Cytodiagnosis / Q000639:trends; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000639:trends*; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000639:trends; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000639:trends; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: Capsule endoscopy; Colitis, ulcerative; Crohn disease; Magnetic resonance enterography; Magnification colonoscopy