title: Colonic thickening on computed tomography-does it correlate with endoscopic findings? A protocol for systematic review.
abstract: Colonic mural thickening is often a finding in standard computed tomography (CT) scans of the abdomen. It often presents clinician with a dilemma on when a further endoscopic evaluation is needed, especially in the absence of guidelines. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the significance of bowel wall thickening and to assess its correlation with endoscopy.
  
  
  
  This systematic review will be reported in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. The search strategy will initially be developed in MEDLINE and adapted for use in EMBASE, MEDLINE, NHS evidence and TRIP. Two reviewers will independently conduct a study selection, data extraction and risk of bias assessment for the screened studies. Data synthesis will be conducted using Review Manager software 5.3. The outcome of any dichotomous data will be presented as relative risk with confidence intervals.
  
  
  
  It is extremely useful for the practising clinician to know which patients need further endoscopic evaluation. Even though there are several studies on this issue, none of them have attempted to produce a systematic review. We hope this systematic review will provide a substantiate evidence for future clinical practice.
  
  
  
  PROSPERO CRD42016039378.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of North Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
authors.forename: Subashini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chandrapalan
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of North Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
authors.forename: Faraz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tahir
authors.affiliation: South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Warwick, UK.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, England, UK. R.Arasaradnam@warwick.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arasaradnam
mesh_terms: D003106:Colon / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D023881:Colonography, Computed Tomographic; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic
keywords: Colon; Computed tomography scan; Endoscopy; Mural thickening