title: MRI for Crohn's Disease: Present and Future.
abstract: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory condition with relapsing-remitting behavior, often causing strictures or penetrating bowel damage. Its lifelong clinical course necessitates frequent assessment of disease activity and complications. Computed tomography (CT) enterography has been used as primary imaging modality; however, the concern for radiation hazard limits its use especially in younger population. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has advantages of avoiding radiation exposure, lower incidence of adverse events, ability to obtain dynamic information, and good soft-tissue resolution. MR enterography (MRE) with oral contrast agent has been used as primary MR imaging modality of CD with high sensitivity, specificity, and interobserver agreement. The extent of inflammation as well as transmural ulcers and fibrostenotic diseases can be detected with MRE. Novel MR techniques such as diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), motility study, PET-MRI, and molecular imaging are currently investigated for further improvement of diagnosis and management of CD. MR spectroscopy is a remarkable molecular imaging tool to analyze metabolic profile of CD with human samples such as plasma, urine, or feces, as well as colonic mucosa itself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University, Seoul 136-705, Republic of Korea ; Biomedical Research Institute, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kichul
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: National Primate Research Center (NPRC), Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Ochang 363-883, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu-Tae
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Research Institute, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hong J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D057054:Molecular Imaging